French billionaire makes fresh bid for Bouygues

Paris

PATRICK Drahi, the owner of France's No 2 telecoms player Numericable-SFR, has offered to buy smaller rival Bouygues Telecom for about 10 billion euros (S$15.2 billion) in cash, two people familiar with the matter said.

The move, which was first reported by the Journal de Dimanche, would take the French mobile market from four to three players at a time when the merits of such consolidations are being hotly debated in Europe.