France Télécom is hoping to price Orange, its mobile phone business, towards the top of the range for the initial public offering at around €63bn ($58.5bn), according to sources close to the deal.

Having bowed to investor concerns and the volatility of the telecoms sector in setting the price range for the IPO of Orange, France Télécom Monday set a discount of around 20% to what it was publicly hoping to raise as recently as last week.