Iliad shares plunge after bid for T-Mobile

PARIS, Aug 01 (AFP): Shares in French telecom company Iliad plunged by nearly 13.0 per cent in early trading on Friday, pulling down the entire telecom sector after the company bid for US firm T-Mobile.
The price of shares in the company, which owns French low-price operator Free, were down 12.74 per cent to 179.75 euros in an overall French market down 0.44 per cent.
Shares in other French operators fell sharply.
Shares in Bouygues, which has a telecom arm, fell by 6.57 per cent to 27.59 euros, in Orange by 2.94 per cent to 11,41 euros, and in Numericable by 2.88 per cent to 40.11 euros.
Late on Thursday, Iliad revealed it was bidding $15 billion (11.2 billion euros) for 56.6 per cent of T-Mobile, controlled by German company Deutsche Telekom.