Bouygues to Seek Partners for $2.2 Billion Fiber Projects

(Bloomberg) -- Bouygues Telecom, the French mobile operator, is seeking partners for two infrastructure rollouts in France that will cost about 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) combined, people familiar with the matter said..The company is seeking investors to help fund 1 billion euros of capital expenditures for a planned fiber construction project in France, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. It is working with an adviser on the potential deal, known internally as “Project Saint-Malo,” the people said..Bouygues Telecom, which is a unit of publicly traded conglomerate Bouygues SA, has received interest from several infrastructure funds as well as French companies, the people said..The company is also reaching out to potential partners for another fiber network rollout, dubbed “Project Asterix,” that will involve spending of at least 1 billion euros, the people said. Its advisers recently kicked off the process by sending out teaser documents, according to the people..Bouygues Telecom has been adding customers by ramping up the roll-out of its network. It now has fiber connections to 10 million premises as of the end of September, up more than 40% from a year earlier, and covers more than 3,090 municipalities, according to an investor presentation. The company targets to increase that to 12 million premises by year-end, adding customers in very dense and medium-density areas..A representatives for Bouygues Telecom declined to comment..Shares of Bouygues were little changed as of 10:21 a.m. in Paris, bringing their year-to-date gain to 17%..What Bloomberg Intelligence Says“Bouygues’ potential 2 billion-euro fiber investment in France, according to Bloomberg News, could enable co-financing of connections in 4 million homes (11% of households), likely in medium-dense and rural areas, boosting retail competition to Altice, given better economics compared with the rental model. An expanding fiber focus by Iliad and Bouygues is a risk to Altice and Orange.”--Erhan Gurses, BI telecom analyst.Demand for fiber connections is rising as the French government pushes to expand ultra-fast internet access to a wider swath of the population. That’s led to deals for yield-hungry pension funds and infrastructure investors, with a consortium led by Omers Infrastructure buying nearly half of Altice Europe NV’s French fiber-to-the-home business for 1.7 billion euros earlier this year..--With assistance from Angelina Rascouet..To contact the reporters on this story: Myriam Balezou in London at mbalezou@bloomberg.net;Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net.To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dinesh Nair at dnair5@bloomberg.net, ;Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net, Ben Scent, Matthew Monks.©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Bouygues to Seek Partners for $2.2 Billion Fiber Projects

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