Altice Europe links with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners to create Altice Portugal FTTH network wholesaler
Altice Europe N.V. (Euronext ATC, ATCB) has announced that, through its subsidiary MEO, will partner with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners to create Altice Portugal FTTH. MEO will sell a minority equity stake of 49.99% in Altice Portugal FTTH to Morgan Stanley based on an enterprise value of €4.63 billion ($5.16 billion). Altice Europe says it will realize nearly €1.57 billion ($1.75 billion) of cash in 2020 from the sale. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2020.
Altice Portugal FTTH will leverage all of MEO’s fiber to the home (FTTH) and dark fiber assets, which pass approximately 4 million homes in Portugal. The new company will offer access to this infrastructure; MEO will sell technical services to Altice Portugal FTTH for fiber network construction and maintenance as well as customer connection.
The agreement will see Altice Europe receive €1.565 billion in 2020, €375 million ($418 million) in December 2021, and €375 million in December 2026, subject to performance metrics.
This agreement follows a previous deal with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners to sell 75% of a new Portuguese wireless tower business in 2018 and the sale of 49.99% of SFR FTTH (a subsidiary of Altice France) to a consortium of private equity firms this past March (see "Altice France sells major stake in SFR FTTH"). “Following this transaction, Altice Europe has obtained cash proceeds in excess of €5.7 billion [$6.35 billion] through the transformational SFR FTTH transaction and the various tower sales and partnerships announced in 2018,” commented Patrick Drahi, founder of Altice. “Altice’s portfolio of infrastructure assets continues to grow. On a 100% proforma basis, SFR FTTH and our towers in France in addition to our fiber and towers in Portugal, already represent more than €0.8 billion [$0.89 billion] of revenues and more than €0.5 billion [$0.56 billion] of EBITDA, effectively constituting one of the largest telecom infrastructure groups in Europe. We continue to focus on deleveraging Altice Europe through growing revenues and EBITDA, supplemented with the disposal proceeds from this transaction.”
Drahi predicted “significant refinancing transactions” in 2020 that will continue a debt interest reduction initiative that targets €0.7 billion ($0.78 billion) annual savings.
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave
Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.
Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.
He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.
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