European Telecoms Implications of French M&A jurisdiction outcome

Research evidence excerpt

European Telecoms Implications of French M&A jurisdiction outcome

Global Research

16 July 2026ab

European Telecoms Equities

Europe including UKImplications of French M&A jurisdiction outcome

Telecommunications

Ondrej Cabejsek

A series of implications on both ends Analyst

As various media outlets reported yesterday throughout the day (link), the breakup of ondrej.cabejsek@ubs.com

Altice France (SFR) among the Consortium of Orange, Bouygues and Iliad will be +44-20-7568 6332

governed by French authorities, specifically the Autorité de la concurrence (ADLC), who Polo Tang

also issued a statement (link). We have written repeatedly (see Consolidation Q&A and Analyst

feedback in detail) about the question of jurisdiction given that Iliad clearly triggered an polo.tang@ubs.com

European dimension based on the 2/3 revenue rule (link) while Bouygues was clearly +44-20-7568 1286

French jurisdiction. The two pre-filed accordingly with the EC and the ADLC respectively. Dhruva Kusa Shah

Orange, despite also pre-filing with the ADLC, was where we saw uncertainty around Analyst

the revenue split and thus ultimately which authority would govern the decision given dhruva-kusa.shah@ubs.com

that we previously also wrote that it would be just one of them taking on all three deals +44-20-7568 3395

(link). We also believed that given this would be the first telecoms merger assessed Oba Agboola

under the new European M&A rules (link) there may be a desire by the EC to set a Associate Analyst

precedent in terms of especially updated remedy application. However, in this instance it obaloluwa.agboola@ubs.com

has been agreed that the merger will have local oversight. +44-20-7568 3969

Christina Michael

Our thoughts and potential implications Associate Analyst