MADRID (Reuters) - Orange (PA:ORAN) will not raise its 3.4-billion-euro (2.67 billion pound) offer to buy Spanish operator Jazztel (MC:JAZ), the French telecoms group's chief executive said in an interview on Sunday.
Orange Chairman and CEO Stephane Richard told El Pais newspaper that the cash takeover bid was very attractive for shareholders, after some Jazztel investors said they would reject it as it undervalued the company.
"I want to be clear: there will be no increase in the price," Richard said in the interview published on Sunday.
Orange unveiled its takeover offer for Jazztel in mid-September, seizing a chance to try and build on gains in Spain's competitive mobile market, still dominated by Telefonica (MC:TEF).
Britain's Vodafone (L:VOD) earlier this year agreed to buy Spanish cable operator Ono for 7.2 billion euros. Orange has since overtaken Vodafone as Spain's no2 mobile operator, July data from the telecoms watchdog shows.
Jazztel Chairman Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals has agreed to sell his 14.5 percent stake. But Alken Asset Management, the company's second largest shareholder, has said it would not sell its 5 percent holding at the price offered, of 13 euros per share.
Jazztel shares closed at 12.75 euros a share on Friday. At the time its offer was disclosed on Sept. 16, Orange said its bid represented a 34 percent premium to Jazztel's average share price in the previous month.
The takeover tender process has not yet been launched.
Richard said Orange was not looking at any acquisitions in Spain aside from Jazztel at the moment. Yoigo, owned by Sweden's TeliaSonera (ST:TLSN), has drawn interest from potential buyers several times in recent years.
"Yoigo is not a priority for us," Richard said.
He added in the interview that Orange was aiming to roll out superfast fibre optic broadband to reach 10 million homes by 2017, building on an existing deployment deal between Jazztel and Telefonica to develop that network.
The previous target was to reach 7 million homes by that date.
(Reporting by Robert Hetz and Sarah White; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)