French telecoms groups readying $23.5 billion SFR deal for antitrust approval 

By Gianluca Lo Nostro

PARIS, June 8 (Reuters) - French telecoms groups Bouygues, Orange and Iliad-owned Free are preparing to notify competition authorities of their planned $23.5 billion takeover of Altice France's SFR, executives said on Monday.

The trio of bidders said on Saturday they had signed a memorandum of understanding with Altice France to buy telecoms operator SFR for €20.35 billion ($23.45 billion), including debt, in what would be one of the biggest European telecoms deals in recent years if approved.

Iliad CEO Thomas Reynaud told reporters on Monday that the company would notify competition authorities of the plan in the next few days. It is not yet clear whether France's competition authority or the European Commission will review the deal, but that will likely become clear "in a matter of weeks", Orange CEO Christel Heydemann said on a call with reporters and analysts. 

Reynaud said it would be preferable to have only one review for simplicity. 

A break-up of SFR would reduce the number of mobile network operators in France to three from four, challenging European Union regulators' long-held red line to maintain four operators per country in Europe.

Under the terms of the proposed deal, Bouygues would acquire the largest share of SFR’s assets, accounting for about 52% of the carved-out revenue, with Iliad taking 27% and Orange 21%. Some assets, including parts of the fixed and mobile networks and IT systems, would be held jointly for a transition period.

($1 = 0.8679 euros)

(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro; Writing by Dominique Patton; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)