Information
Niel has decreased his holding within the firm to lower than 0.1%
French billionaire Xavier Niel, proprietor of Iliad Group, has offered his roughly 6% stake in Belgian telco Proximus, in accordance with a latest submitting.
Assuming Proximus’s latest share value of €6.56, the deal would have netted Niel round €135 million.
Niel acquired his roughly 6% stake within the enterprise in late 2023 by way of his Irish holding firm Carraun, praising the operator’s networks and aggressive positioning.
By 2025, stories advised that Niel had proposed a shared possession mannequin with the Belgian authorities – Proximus’s largest stakeholder with round 53% possession. Based on these stories, this deal would have seen the federal government retain the chairmanship of the board, with Niel appointed CEO and given the potential for rising his stake in future.
The deal was finally rejected by the state, which was possible considered the deal as one thing of a comfortable takeover.
For years, Niel had beforehand made no secrets and techniques of his ambitions to launch his challenger model Free within the Belgium market, one of the crucial costly telecoms markets in Europe. Responding to a 2024 put up on X bemoaning the nation’s excessive costs, Niel mentioned he was all for it, saying “it’s your authorities that doesn’t need it” (translated).
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”fr” dir=”ltr”>Moi je suis chaud, c’est votre gouvernement qui veut pas <a href=”https://t.co/iwJ2QbXuhR”>https://t.co/iwJ2QbXuhR</a></p>— Xavier Niel (@Xavier75) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Xavier75/standing/1979549525816594492?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>October 18, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Now, with the Belgian authorities’s perspective seemingly unchanged, Niel has determined to show his consideration elsewhere. One such location is unquestionably Chile, the place Niel’s NJJ Holding teamed up with Millicom to buy Telefónica’s native unit earlier within the yr.
With Brussels unwilling to loosen its grip on the previous incumbent, Niel seems to have concluded that Belgium’s telecom market stays simpler to complain about than to crack.
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