Israel's Bezeq mobile unit offers to buy rival from Altice for $594 million

Israeli mobile phone operator Pelephone has offered up to 2 billion shekels ($594 million) in cash to buy all of rival HOT Mobile from Patrick Drahi's Altice International, Pelephone's parent company Bezeq Israel Telecom BEZQ said.

Bezeq said in a regulatory filing late on Tuesday in Tel Aviv that Pelephone has submitted a non-binding letter of intent and that there was no assurance it would lead to negotiations or a deal.

HOT declined to comment.

Any deal would need approval from Israel's competition authority, which told Reuters: "We will conduct a thorough review of the deal once it is submitted for our examination."

Bezeq and HOT are Israel's two largest telecoms groups but their mobile subscribership lags behind market leaders Cellcom CEL and Partner PTNR, which have more than 3 million each.

Pelephone has 2.6 million customers and HOT is estimated at 2 million.

Israeli media have reported that Altice has been exploring options to sell a minority stake in cable company HOT, a significant telecoms rival to Bezeq.

($1 = 3.3695 shekels)