Vodafone May Make Offer for Vivendi Unit

Vodafone Group may make an unsolicited cash offer for SFR, the French mobile phone company controlled by Vivendi Universal, by the end of the month, the Financial Times reported, without citing anyone.

The offer may be about $12.4 billion, the paper cited unidentified analysts as saying. Vodafone would probably use a $10.65-billion unused bank facility to fund the purchase, the paper said.

Vodafone, which last week agreed to buy Vivendi’s stake in Vizzavi for $140.1 million in cash, wants to gain control of SFR because France is the only big European market where it does not have a controlling stake in its mobile operations, the paper said.

Vodafone spokeswoman Melissa Stimpson declined to comment.