SFR breakup can win watchdog approval, says Bouygues

Bouygues says the planned breakup of SFR can still win competition approval, even though it would reduce France’s main telecom market from four operators to three.

The group’s chief executive, Olivier Roussat, told the Financial Times that regulators appear more open to the transaction than they were two or three years ago. His comments are the clearest public signal yet that the buyers believe the deal can survive antitrust scrutiny.

The proposed transaction was announced on June 6 and would see Bouygues, Orange and Iliad’s Free buy and divide up Patrick Drahi’s SFR in a deal valued at about €20.35bn. The buyers are presenting the breakup as a scale-and-investment play in a market known for aggressive price competition.

Regulatory test

The central question is whether French or European Union competition authorities will sign off on a structure that consolidates the market around the three biggest operators.

France’s competition chief, Benoît Cœuré, said in comments published on June 13 that the rival buyout of SFR is not automatically anti-competitive, but that it is not self-evident either. That leaves the transaction on a narrow path: possible, but subject to close scrutiny.

Bouygues is now arguing that the breakup format improves the odds of approval. The company has not publicly detailed any remedies, but filings are expected soon and the eventual review process will determine whether the buyers need to offer concessions.

Deal chronology

The June 6 agreement followed earlier industry interest in French telecom consolidation, a topic that has long been sensitive because regulators have traditionally opposed four-to-three mergers on consumer-price grounds.

The latest reporting suggests the June 15 comments from Roussat are aimed at reframing that history. He said he would not have made the same claim two or three years ago, underscoring how the buyers think the regulatory climate has changed.

SFR is part of Altice France, controlled by Drahi, and the transaction would strip the company of one of its core assets. The deal still needs to clear formal merger filings before any sale or split can proceed.

What happens next

The immediate questions are which authority will take the lead, what remedies the buyers may propose, and how assets, customers and staff will be divided among Bouygues, Orange and Free.

Any approval would remove a major obstacle to one of the biggest recent telecom transactions in France and could become a reference point for future European consolidation arguments. Rejection would leave Altice France and SFR with fewer strategic options.

For now, the deal has moved from a long-taboo idea to an active competition test.