Altice International holds off on Altice Portugal sale

The Chief Financial Officer of Altice International, Malo Corbin told financial analysts on Thursday that the multinational telecoms company had decided to hold off on selling the jewel in the Altice crown – Portugal’s MEO.

Revenues netted from the recent sale of assets such as Teads and its position in BT have given the company’s owner Patrick Drahi a respite to not sell all of Altice Portugal.

In a conference call with investors to present the company’s first half results for 2024, senior management figures at Altice International told investors not to expect a sale of all of Altice Portugal in the “short term”. For now, the company is exploring ways to monetise some of the assets it has in Portugal, but it has “no defined perimeter or any transactions to announce at this time”.

It was an attempt to clear up a deadlock over the total or partial sale of some or all of the assets Alice International holds in Portugal in a bid to reduce the holding company’s estimated €70Bn debt.

Saudi Telecom, which had been interested in buying a controlling share in Altice Portugal, had earlier this year pulled out of the negotiations over price differences.

However, with Altice Portugal now bringing in revenues of over €1Bn, the heat on Patrick Drahi may be off for the time being.

“At this time, we do not foresee in the short term any transaction involving the total perimeter of Altice Portugal. We are continuing to explore various options involving the significant value of infrastructure that exists at Altice Portugal and, if and when there is reason to do so, further announcements will be made to the market,” said a company official.

The news was given to the group’s bondholders at the quarterly earnings conference on Wednesday, but without going into details about the plans it has going forward. However, when asked about the matter, Malo Corbin, CFO of Altice International, recalled that Altice Portugal holds “several assets that have aroused the interest of potential investors”.

“PT is incumbent in Portugal, so it is very rich in terms of assets and infrastructure. We have monetised some of them in the past, but there are still many high-value assets within Portugal,” said Malo Corbin. In that sense, Altice “has seen some appetite for some of them,” so that’s what it’s focusing on now, the manager added.

Last year, Altice was close to closing the sale of its data centre at Covilhã – one of the largest in the world – to Horizon Equity Partners, in a transaction estimated at €200 million. However, the deal was stalled by the outbreak of Operation Picoas, a Public Ministry investigation which looked into how people close to Altice, including co-founder Armando Pereira, may have undermined the group and the State through questionable and self-interested business dealings, and has not been resumed.

As for Altice Portugal’s half year results, these dropped by 0.6% to June to €1.4Bn. Earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortiSation (EBITDA) amounted to €511 million, 2.3% more than a year earlier. Global investment (CAPEX) reached €195 million, a year-on-year decrease of 15.7%.

This reduction in investment resulted from the fact that Altice Portugal has practically completed the ‘deployment’ (implementation and availability process) of fibre (6.4 million homes) and investments in the mobile network. In the second quarter, Altice Portugal’s revenues amounted to €705 million, EBITDA reached €252 million, while the company’s investment was €95 million.