Altice to Sell Belgium, Luxembourg Business to Telenet -- Update
December 22 2016 - 3:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Nick Kostov
PARIS--Telecommunications group Altice NV (ATC.AE) said Thursday
it will sell its Belgium and Luxembourg business to Telenet Group
BVBA in a transaction that values the assets at 400 million euros
($417.5 million).
The sale to Telenet Group BVBA--a subsidiary of Telenet Group
Holding NV (TNET.BT)--marks a rare disposal for Altice which has
been best-known for a string of eye-catching acquisitions since
2014, including deals for Cablevision Systems Corp. in the U.S. and
SFR in France.
It is the first time that Altice founder Patrick Drahi has
chosen to dispose of one of his units himself and points to a
strategy of focusing on his larger assets since he expanded his
business to the U.S. a year ago. Until now, Mr. Drahi had only sold
assets when forced to do so by regulators, for example in Portugal
when he bought the country's former telecom monopoly.
Altice aims to have the most-or second-most-customers in each of
the countries it operates. The company last year lost out to
Liberty Global PLC (LBTYA) in the EUR1.3 billion bidding war for
Base, Belgium's third biggest mobile operator, leaving it with no
clear path into the top two in Belgium.
Mr. Drahi acquired Coditel Brabant in 2003 for EUR82 million and
rebranded it SFR Belgium years later. Altice's business in Belgium
and Luxembourg made core earnings of EUR51 million in 2015 on
revenue of EUR75 million, according to the Altice website. It has
110,000 cable customers.
Earlier this month, Altice said that it was considering an
initial public offering of a minority interest in its U.S.
operations--which now count 4.6 million customers across 20
states--as it looks to raise money to expand the cable business it
created by buying Cablevision and Suddenlink.
The sale of Altice's Belgium and Luxembourg business will be
subject to regulatory review by the Belgian authorities.
(William Horobin contributed to this article.)
-Write to Nick Kostov at nick.kostov@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 22, 2016 03:14 ET (08:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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