Bouygues, Orange, and Free have struck an agreement worth €20.35 billion to acquire SFR's assets in France.

An agreement was announced over the weekend, following months of negotiations over a deal that will see Altice's mobile unit SFR split between the three telcos.

Altice previously extended the exclusivity period granted to Bouygues Telecom, the Free–Iliad Group, and Orange for its mobile unit SFR.

The trio put forward an offer of €20.35 billion ($23.66bn) to snap up SFR in April, which was an improvement on the previous one put forward to Altice Group in October, when Altice owner Patrick Drahi immediately rejected a €17bn ($19.8bn) offer from the consortium.

The terms of the deal remain the same, with Bouygues Telecom taking a 42 percent share, 31 percent for the Free–Iliad Group, and 27 percent for Orange.

As part of the agreement, the consumer mobile and broadband assets will be split between the consortium, while Bouygues will take control of the B2B segment.

The deal will see France's mobile market consolidate to three main carriers from four.

"The consortium is paying special attention to the social implications of this operation. The success of a project of this scale depends first and foremost on the women and men who know the networks, systems, customers, and local areas," said SFR in a statement.

"Migrating millions of subscribers, infrastructure, and systems is a multi-year industrial program. Service continuity for subscribers depends directly on the skills of the SFR teams taken on by the consortium, which will need their expertise to successfully complete this transformation under the best possible conditions."

The carrier also confirmed that the consortium has ensured the employment for all the staff of the acquired scope until the beginning of 2029, either by allowing them to continue in their present position or providing them with a job opportunity.

Regulatory approvals will be needed to finalize the deal, while the signing of the definitive legal documents is expected in the second half of this year, ahead of a planned completion in the second half of 2027.

The sale is part of Altice's plans to shift assets in order to pay down its mounting debt.

The company is open to selling its telecoms business and recently spun off its French data center assets, forming a new company with more than 250 facilities in France, which were then sold to Morgan Stanley.

Altice has been in talks over a deal to sell its Portuguese mobile unit, and has separately looked to sell off its data center unit in the country. The telco also notably sold its 24.5 percent stake in BT.

Earlier this year, the company also shortlisted four bidders for a controlling stake in French fiber company XpFibre, in which Altice currently owns a majority stake of 50.01 percent.