Fifth operator on the market with 2.3 million customers, La Poste Mobile attracts the attention of Free, Bouygues Telecom and Orange. SFR, which holds almost half the shares, is more hesitant.
La Poste Mobile and its approximately 2 million customers will soon change hands. But who will take them? Is it Orange, the historic operator; Free Mobile, the troublemaker; Bouygues Telecom, the challenger; or SFR, which has a key legal advantage? The first three have already submitted firm offers to buy back the La Poste shares put up for sale, i.e. 51% of the total. The remaining 49% is owned by SFR, which would consider another option.
Orange, Free and Bouygues Telecom in the running to take over La Poste Mobile
At the start of the year, the La Poste group, owner of the virtual telecom operator “La Poste Mobile”, began looking for a buyer for its shares. The MVNO (an operator which does not have its own network but which relies on the services and the network of another, in this case SFR) attracts envy.
Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad, the parent company of Free, have each submitted a firm offer to seize the shares (51%) that La Poste holds in its MVNO, profitable since 2022 and therefore in good financial health.
The offers submitted by the three operators would value La Poste Mobile between 600 and 750 million euros. Enough to offer the public group, which wants to recover cash, a nice financial windfall, which it could use to better face the economic context and absorb the decline of its historic core activity, mail delivery.
SFR would prefer to sell its shares
But then, where does SFR fit into all this, you may be wondering? The question is more than legitimate! SFR owns 49% of La Poste Mobile, and as a shareholder and network provider, the red square operator holds approval rights over the future buyer. In other words: SFR has a right of veto.
Patrick Drahi’s company also has a right of pre-emption. If it exercises it, it will have priority to buy back the shares of La Poste Mobile. However, the trend would be, according to the sources of the Echoes, for sale for SFR. The operator is heavily in debt and could take advantage of the opportunity to improve his reputation a little.
In this case, the operator would completely change hands and, therefore, the network. La Poste still maintains one wish: that its mobile brand endures and continues to be distributed in its 7,000 physical offices distributed throughout the country.
Source : The echoes
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