Altice raises €1.61 billion in capital increase

Altice continues to line up financing for its pending $17.7 billion purchase of Cablevision Systems, raising about $8.6 billion in new debt and readying the placement of about $1.8 billion of its own stock.

Cable and telecom investor Altice has successfully priced the share issue it announced earlier this week and will raise gross proceeds of approximately €1.61 billion from the sale, the company has announced.

The Cablevision deal marked the second step in Altice’s US growth plan, but it will not necessarily be the last.

Drahi has turned Altice into an acquisition machine since 2012, scooping up telecoms and cable companies in France, Portugal, Israel and now the United States, which it entered in May by buying a regional cable group called Suddenlink for $9.1 billion.

Combined with debt from Cablevision, total debt financing of the deal stood at $14.5 billion with an average maturity of 6.6 years and an average cost of 7.5 percent, Altice said. In addition, Cablevision has secured a 5 year $2 billion revolving facility, ensuring ample room to meet Cablevision’s liquidity needs.

Altice sold 69,997,600 A shares and up to 24,825,602 B shares, which carry higher voting rights, in what was the first stock sale since Mr. Drahi re-domiciled the company in the Netherlands in August.

Altice will apply to list the new shares on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange on October 5. Altice has agreed, subject to customary carve-outs, to a 90 day lock-up on its class A and class B shares.

JP Morgan was the coordinator and bookrunner for the deal, it added.