Bouygues Boosts SFR Bid to Take Cash Portion to $21 Billion

Bouygues SA, locked in a monthlong bidding war with Altice SA to acquire Vivendi SA’s French telecommunications unit SFR, sweetened its offer again to bring the cash component to 15 billion euros ($20.6 billion).

The construction and media company led by Martin Bouygues put up an extra 1.85 billion euros, topping a cash bid from cable tycoon Patrick Drahi’s Altice by 3.25 billion euros. Vivendi would receive 10 percent of a company created from a merger of SFR with Bouygues Telecom, Paris-based Bouygues said. Altice, proposing to combine its Numericable Group with SFR, offered Vivendi a 32 percent stake in an enlarged entity.