Bouygues: SFR acquisition will enable doubling of fibre investment

Martin Bouygues

The acquisition of SFR by Bouygues Telecom would re-establish a competitive French telecom market and allow his group to invest more in fibre and mobile networks, according to the company’s proprietor Martin Bouygues.

In an interview with financial daily Les Echos, Bouygues said he was confident that the French competition authority would give a green light to the merger of the two operators and that this would re-establish infrastructure-based competition in France.

Bouygues said the acquisition would release synergies that would enable the combined company to make new investments in 4G and fibre optic networks. He said he was convinced by the case for fibre-to-the-home, which could deliver a higher performance than cable. The said the group would invest €400 million each year in FTTH, twice as much as before the merger.

Bouygues said he had not envisaged a merger between his telecom unit and rival telco Free. He said that Bouygues and SFR’s teams had a common vision.

Bouygues reiterated that there would be no forced or voluntary redundancies if the deal goes through.