Media company Vivendi confirmed a change of CEO at its French telecoms unit SFR, asserting that the business “possesses all the assets to adapt to the existing competitive environment, to continue to fully satisfy its millions of customers and to benefit from the growth generated by new digital uses.”

Frank Esser, SFR’s chairman and CEO, is to leave the company, having joined in 2000, initially as COO, before taking on the CEO role in 2002. His responsibilities will be assumed by Vivendi’s current chairman and CEO, Jean-Bernard Levy (pictured), with immediate effect.

According to Reuters, Levy is taking on the SFR role on an interim basis, with an executive search firm already retained to find a suitable permanent appointee. It is not clear how long this process will take.

The reshuffle comes amid intense competition in the French market, which has been reinvigorated following the launch of low-cost operator Free Mobile earlier this year. At the time of its 2011 results announcement earlier this month, Vivendi said that “the commercial launch of a fourth mobile operator has resulted in a significant revision of tariffs offers, which will impact SFR’s revenues and margins.”

SFR’s main rival in the French market, France Telecom’s Orange, has also noted the effect of Free Mobile’s entry into the market, although as this company has a wholesale relationship with the new player, it will also see some upside – reports have indicated that this contract is worth EUR1 billion in total.

During 2011, mobile revenue at SFR decreased by 5.4 percent to EUR8.45 billion, although it noted that mobile service revenue had been affected by new VAT rules and regulated price cuts.

Last year, Vivendi paid around EUR8 billion to buy partner Vodafone Group’s stake in SFR. Bloomberg reported that an analyst with Kepler Capital Markets had said: “ in hindsight, it looks like Vivendi could have paid much less for SFR had it waited a year.”

In a statement, Vivendi said that as CEO, Esser “successfully led the development of SFR in a very competitive environment, both in the mobile, fixed and internet access markets.”