- General
- September 21, 2020
- 4 minutes read
Iliad Eyes Poland’s Play
Iliad Founder and Chairman Xavier Niel. Photo credit: @francois for LeWeb, licensed under Creative Commons French telecoms firms Iliad…
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| Iliad Founder and Chairman Xavier Niel.
Photo credit: @francois for LeWeb, licensed under Creative Commons
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French telecoms firms Iliad has submitted a formal tender to acquire Play Communications, a Polish telecoms company, in a deal valued at 3.5 billion euros ($4.2 billion) including debt. Iliad has submitted an offer to acquire all the shares of Play Communications for a total of 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) and assume the company’s debt and liabilities of the remaining amount. Already, the French telecoms firm has formalized a deal to purchase a 40% stake from two shareholders and is now bidding for the entire company. A decision on the acquisition will be taken by Play’s shareholders from now through the 25th of November, 2020, when a final settlement, be it an acceptance or rejection, will be announced.
A merger between Iliad and Play would tie together two major telecom providers in the European market. Currently, Play has 15 million subscribers and a 29% market share in Poland’s mobile telephone market, which it got into in 2007. It’s such that acquiring Play would make Iliad the sixth-largest telecom provider in Europe, according to the company’s CEO Thomas Reynauld. “This deal is a major chapter in our internationalisation strategy,” Reynauld said in a press statement.
Iliad’s Play Communications bid marks the company’s third move outside the French market, its most recent before now being the purchase of a minority stake in Irish telecom provider Eir in 2018. With the addition of Play, Iliad will have a combined 41 million subscribers across Europe, 20 million of which are currently in its hometown of France. Iliad’s French mobile operator, Free, opened up the country’s mobile market about a decade ago with low-cost offers on fixed telephone, internet, and TV and has steadily gained momentum since then. After making strides in France, the company has now set its eyes on international expansion to boost business.
