For the last three months, construction giant Bouygues SA has been courted by some of the world’s largest mobile phone operators, in an attempt to be chosen as the partner in Bouygues’ bid for the third French mobile operator licence, reports La Tribune-Defosses. Bouygues, whose managing director has been quoted as saying telecommunications will become a major focus of development for the group, hopes to be chosen for the licence over Alcatel NV. Alcatel’s candidacy is said to be badly regarded by France Telecom, which doesn’t want to see its major equipment supplier become a competitor. Gerard Longuet, the French minister of industry, is expected to launch the request for proposals on January 15. The licence should be awarded in the summer. We expect to favour European partners. The ideal for us would be to build a joint venture with a German or British company and, if necessary, invite in a financial partner, says Rene Russo, associate managing director for development, in La Tribune. Among the possible candidates: Cellnet Mobile Communications Ltd, Vodafone Group Plc or Mercury Communications Ltd on the English side, and Veba AG or Thyssen AG, on the German, the paper said. The company expects to invest between $1,700m to $2,580m over the next five years. Bouygues’ telecommunications division in France already employs 60-odd staff and should grow to 700, thanks to a radio-messaging licence it was granted in October. The licence was something of a consolation prize for having lost its bid for a mobile data transmission licence earlier on.
