Paris, 15th June 2015
On 30 October 2014, France’s Competition authority (Autorité de la concurrence) approved the sale of SFR to Altice subsidiary, Numericable, under certain conditions (1). One of these conditions was Numericable’s commitment to sell off Outremer Telecom’s (Only) mobile business in Réunion and Mayotte, and to submit the buyer to the Competition authority for approval.
The Competition authority has approved the firm Hiridjee as the buyer of the Outremer Telecom operations that are being divested. At the same time, ARCEP has accepted the request from Outremer Telecom to sell off frequencies to Telco OI, whose purpose is to hold the assets that will be sold to Hiridjee.
The buyer satisfies the conditions set by the two authorities: Hiridjee is a company that owns telecommunications businesses in Madagascar, and therefore has the proven competencies required to take control of the operations being sold. The company is also independent from the Altice group and its Numericable subsidiary, and has furnished sufficient financial guarantees.
The formal completion of this sale should create an opportunity to develop the capabilities of the businesses being sold such that they can compete actively with SRR and Orange in Réunion and in Mayotte, and so to stimulate those markets. ARCEP and the Competition authority will continue to keep a close watch over the development of this new competitor, particularly during the transitional phase when it will need to rely on solutions supplied by Altice, before its own operations are up and running.
(1) See Decision 14-DCC-160 and the press release from 27 October 2014