Altice Gets Partner Agreement on Cablevision Acquisition
October 27 2015 - 12:00PM
Dow Jones News
PARIS—Two investment funds have agreed to partner with Altice NV
on its $10 billion bid to acquire U.S.-based cable firm Cablevision
Systems Corp., deepening their involvement with European
cable-to-telecoms tycoon Patrick Drahi.
Private-equity firm BC Partners and Canadian pension fund CPP
Investment Board agreed to take a 30% equity stake in Cablevision
for $1 billion, they said Tuesday. Altice previously said the funds
had an option to buy a 30% stake in the New-York based cable
operator when announcing the takeover in September.
The agreement means that the acquisition of Cablevision is now
fully funded. Altice earlier sold $8.6 billion in new Cablevision
debt and $1.8 billion in new equity to finance the $17.7 billion
purchase, which includes debt. The takeover is set to make
Altice—which has built an empire stretching from Israel to
France—the no. 4 cable operator in the U.S. with 4.6 million
customers stretching over 20 states
The pact is also a further vote of confidence in Mr. Drahi's
business model, which has relied on heavy debt to finance an
acquisition spree. The two private equity groups also partnered
with Altice on its takeover of U.S. cable firm Suddenlink earlier
this year, selling 70% of Suddenlink to Altice but retaining the
other 30%.
"[We] are highly confident in Altice's ability to further
enhance network quality, increase customer satisfaction, and
meaningfully improve financial performance at Cablevision," said
Raymond Svider, co-chairman and managing partner of BC
Partners.
Altice has been positioning itself to disrupt the U.S. market in
recent months. By importing a European business model of bundling
cable TV, high-speed Internet and fixed and mobile phone services,
the company eventually plans to undercut rivals that sell them
separately.
Chief Executive Dexter Goei said in September that investing
alongside private-equity firms would make it more likely that
Altice would list its U.S. business in the future, allowing these
firms a way to exit the venture. "That is clearly something we'll
be looking at over time," he said when asked about the
possibility.
Write to Inti Landauro at inti.landauro@wsj.com and Nick Kostov
at Nick.Kostov@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 27, 2015 11:45 ET (15:45 GMT)
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