Hot on the heels of the agreed merger with SFR, French cableco Numericable’s main shareholder Altice is reportedly eyeing at least four targets in Belgium.
Patrick Drahi’s Luxembourg-based holding company Altice is looking at Tecteo and Brutele,…
Hot on the heels of the agreed merger with SFR, French cableco Numericable’s main shareholder Altice is reportedly eyeing at least four targets in Belgium.
Patrick Drahi’s Luxembourg-based holding company Altice is looking at Tecteo and Brutele, joint venture partners in Walloon-based cableco Voo, to expand in television and internet services, Belgian paper L’Echo reported.
Tecteo is the priority target and an agreement could be reached in September or October, the report stated.
The nation’s second and third largest mobile operators, Mobistar and Base respectively, are also said to be potential targets. Altice could look at Brutele in the winter and Mobistar and perhaps also Base afterward, the report stated. There has been speculation that Mobistar, controlled by France’s Orange group, is up for sale, while Base’s owner, Dutch telco KPN, made an unsuccessful attempt to sell the company in 2012.
Last month, Altice won an intense bidding war for Vivendi’s French telecoms unit, SFR, agreeing to pay €13.5bn (US$18.52bn) in cash. Altice will own 60% of the combined Numericable and SFR entity, while Vivendi will own 20%. Altice and Numericable priced a €12bn megabond in late April to fund the deal.
