Altice Portugal will retain control of fibre optics

The CEO of Altice Portugal, Alexandre Fonseca says that the Portuguese telecoms giant will retain control of its fibre optics network despite the company selling 49.99% of the network.

Altice closed an agreement for the sale of the network to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, a process that has dragged on for months and involved several competitors. However, Fonseca insisted in an e-mail sent on Friday to his employees that: “Altice Portugal will not let go of control of its fibre optics business and its current dominant position of just over 50%.”
Altice sold the 49.99% share of its fibre optics network on national territory to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners in a deal worth €4.6Bn in a transaction that should be completed in the first half of next year.
Altice expects to net €1.5Bn in 2020 and apart from that it also will receive a further €375 million in December 2021 and another €375 million in December 2026.
In an e-mail sent out to all staff, the CEO of Altice Portugal set out the option. “Over the past months, many operators have shown an interest in using our infrastructures in Portugal which is a positive sign as to the importance and attractiveness of the national market.
“The interest shown in Altice Portugal’s fibre optics network reflects a recognition of the group’s strategy, its intrinsic value and the prestige of its assets and the investments that the company has made in Portugal.”
Alexandre Fonseca stresses that Altice will retain control of the infrastructure. “The building of the fibre optic network in the country is one of our main strategies in Portugal so that we can retain our ongoing position (as a market leader) and as one of the biggest investors in Portugal and the aim is to achieve 5.3 million homes with fibre optics which will make Portugal the first country in Europe to have a practically integral fibre optic coverage” he said.