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      Bouygues Telecom Extends Distribution of Plans to Credit Mutuel/CIC Banks

      Story Of The Week

      Bouygues Telecom Extends Distribution of Plans to Credit Mutuel/CIC Banks

      French operator Bouygues Telecom announced that all its fixed and mobile plans are now available for sale through the retail channels of the Crédit Mutuel banking group, which counts over 4,500 points of sale when including the bank branches under the CIC brand. This marks a new development in the distribution agreement signed by the two partners in mid-2020, which was an element of the deal for Bouygues Telecom’s acquisition of MVNO EIT (Euro-Information Telecom). With the transaction, completed in early January, Bouygues Telecom integrated all of Euro-Information’s five main consumer-facing brands, including CIC Mobile and Credit Mutuel Mobile.

      The latest announcement means that Bouygues Telecom will sell telecom offers under its own brand across the Crédit Mutuel/CIC retail footprint. The latter has ambitious commercial targets, said the operator, aiming to sell 400,000 mobile plans and 80,000 fibre-based broadband packages in 2022.

      Tarifica’s Take

      In June 2020, Bouygues Telecom signed an exclusivity agreement with Euro-Information, a Crédit Mutuel group company, acquiring all the capital of its subsidiary, the alternative telecom operator (actually an MVNE for five MVNO brands) Euro-Information Telecom (EIT), and agreeing to an exclusive distribution partnership between Crédit Mutuel, CIC and Bouygues. At that time, Bouygues CEO Richard Viel said, “Bouygues Telecom is delighted with this deal and partnership project with Crédit Mutuel, a major French banking group with which we share the same ethical values and customer focus. We expect this agreement to boost Bouygues Telecom’s customer base and strengthen its commercial footprint by being able to sell its offers through the local bank branches of Crédit Mutuel and CIC, which are spread widely across France.”

      That plan to strengthen Bouygues’ retail footprint is now about to come to fruition, and it appears to be a worthwhile one, rich in synergies. By acquiring EIT Bouygues got access to not one but five brands, each with its own presence in the marketplace, through which it can market itself to potential subscribers, both mobile and fixed line. These MVNOs are branded through banks, so through them, Bouygues can cast a wider net and find customers who come to the relationship because of banking needs as well as demand for telecom services.