The outcome was quick. A little over a month after leaving the door open to a “change in the capital of La Poste Mobile”, La Poste entered into exclusive negotiations with Bouygues Telecom with a view to the sale of the first virtual operator (MVNO) on the French market . The operator, created in 1994 by Martin Bouygues, is on the verge of winning against Orange and Iliad, the parent company of Free, and strengthening its subscriber base of around 2.3 million customers.
Bouygues Telecom plans to acquire, for 950 million euros, 100% of the capital of La Poste Telecom, a joint venture which supports the La Poste Mobile brand, and owned 51% by La Poste and 49% by SFR. Which values the company at 963.4 million euros, much more than the expected valuation – between 600 and 750 million euros – notes The echoes.
The fruits of successful diversification
While the volume of mail continues to decline year by year, La Poste is reaping the benefits of a successful diversification into mobile launched in 2011. Although success took a long time to emerge, La Poste Mobile ended up, driven by growth of 8% on average per year, to reach profitability in 2022.
Employing 400 employees, the MVNO should generate, for the current financial year, an Ebitdaal (profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of 48 million euros for an expected turnover of some 336 million euros.
La Poste Mobile capitalizes on its popular positioning with its low-cost, no-commitment plans (from 11 euros per month for 60 GB). Its coverage throughout the country thanks to some 7,000 post offices is, moreover, incommensurate with the point of sale networks of traditional operators.
In current negotiations, La Poste has obtained the right to retain ownership of the La Poste Mobile commercial brand and for its offers to be exclusively distributed on the postal network, a key factor in its success.
Unless SFR screws everything up
For its part, Bouygues Telecom is getting closer to SFR in second place in the ranking of French operators with now a number of 17.7 million mobile subscribers compared to around 20.7 million for the Altice subsidiary, also in loss of speed in recent months. The acquisition of La Poste Telecom should result in an Ebitdaal of around 140 million euros per year from 2028.
It was already through an organic growth operation that the subsidiary of the construction group had taken third place from Free in 2020 with the acquisition of Euro-Information Telecom (EIT) and its five MVNO brands – Auchan Mobile, NRJ Mobile, Cdiscount Mobile, Crédit Mutuel Mobile and CIC Mobile – for 855 million euros.
Given the capacity of its mobile network, Bouygues Telecom does not plan any additional investment to accommodate La Poste Mobile subscribers who until now use SFR infrastructure. The migration is expected to take place in 2027.
The operation, subject to consultation with La Poste’s representative bodies and authorization from the Competition Authority, should be finalized by the end of the year. Unless SFR derails the project. As recalled The echoes, the operator can exercise within the next 30 days a right of pre-emption on the shares sold by La Poste as well as a right of approval on the purchaser. To be continued.