Orange CEO Christel Heydemann said the timeline for the acquisition of SFR by rival French operators remains unchanged.(Source: Orange)

The planned carve-up of SFR by remaining three French operators is on track, Orange CEO Christel Heydemann said when asked about the deal's progress during today's third-quarter earnings call.

"The timeline is unchanged. We plan signing of the transaction by the end of this year, 2026, and closing by the end of 2027," she said, noting that it is still pending successful completion of the required legal procedures.

The €20.4 billion (US$22.7 billion) deal was announced in June, and sees Orange, Bouygues and Iliad dividing up SFR assets and customers among themselves. The operators launched a joint bid as SFR's parent company Altice France was looking to sell the operator to lessen its significant debt burden.

The deal is dependent on the completion of two simultaneous procedures, the first of which is securing the agreement of employee representatives, Heydemann explained.

While the three companies buying SFR have succeeded in doing so, Altice France employees have been more difficult to persuade. Negotiations are still ongoing, while employee representatives have attacked the deal in court. However, Heydemann said that at the moment there is no indication that this should delay the transaction.

The lengthier procedure, in her view, is the ongoing antitrust probe, which she said should conclude towards the end of 2027. The French regulator, Arcep, says it will conclude around then at the earliest.

Heydemann was also confident that the deal wouldn't be derailed by the upcoming presidential election in April. "SFR is managing critical infrastructure for France and for millions of customers. This is something that I think all political parties are aware of, and we have not seen any negative comment to the proposed transaction from any political party in France." She also noted that the antitrust authority is independent of the government.

Satellite plans

Another topic discussed on the call was Orange's plan for satellite services and spectrum. The operator has recently expressed interest in acquiring MSS spectrum in a planned joint bid with Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Vodafone. Asked about Orange's plans for the spectrum, Heydemann said: "We see MSS spectrum really as a complement to our terrestrial network, and as we've always said, for us the key element will be the customer experience and the handover from terrestrial to satellite and back and forth between our networks, which really requires mastering both sides of the experience," while also working with handsets. Heydemann said the companies will share more detail closer to the bidding process, which is expected to take place in the second half of next year.

In the meantime, the company has already launched a limited mobile satellite direct-to-device (D2D) messaging service last year in partnership with Skylo, but the list of devices supported remains extremely limited. Only Google Pixel 9 and 10 models are compatible.

"It was for us a test in the market to test the appetite, to position ourselves on this segment," Heydemann said, adding Orange plans to expand the offer, particularly in terms of device support. She added that the conclusion is that there is demand from customers for the technology.

Orange is testing Starlink's service in Spain, while also preparing for a pilot in Romania. The latter, however, depends on satellite availability and should kick off next year, as Light Reading previously reported.

Earnings figures

Orange saw its revenue grow by 3.6% to €12.2 billion ($13.6 billion) in Q3, with EBITDAaL (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, but after leases) up by 4.6% to €4.1 billion ($4.6 billion). The group credits its "strong commercial performance" in all geographies for the result and raised its 2026 EBITDAaL growth target to over 4.5% from over 4%.

Orange Business revenues are still in decline, having fallen 2.5% in the latest quarter, to €1.7 billion ($1.9 billion) despite 12.2% growth at Orange Cyberdefense. The unit is being weighed down by the macroeconomic environment, but continues its "transformation" efforts, group CFO Laurent Martinez said on the call.

Its transformation plan includes accelerating the commercial launch of its AI and trusted cloud solutions, particularly those targeting the defense and security sectors.