ALIZF - Altice Wins Most From $2 Bln Fibre Sale
By Breakingviews
Patrick Drahi's financial engineering makes Europe's other telecom bosses seem idle. A 30 billion euro debt pile admittedly forces the founder and controlling shareholder of Altice (ATCEY) to be creative. The tycoon has nonetheless come out top from his latest sale.
Altice on Friday said it had agreed to sell just under half of a unit that's building fast-broadband lines in France to funds managed by insurers Allianz (ALIZF) and AXA (AXAHY) and a Canadian pension manager for 1.8 billion euros. The unit will build connections reaching at least 1 million homes each