Private equity firm Carlyle is further selling down shares, equating to a 1.8% stake, in European telecoms group Altice.
The vast majority of the 4.4 million shares are being bought by Altice founder Patrick Drahi, while CEO Dexter Goei and COO Patrice…
Private equity firm Carlyle is further selling down shares, equating to a 1.8% stake, in European telecoms group Altice.
The vast majority of the 4.4 million shares are being bought by Altice founder Patrick Drahi, while CEO Dexter Goei and COO Patrice Giami will acquire 200,000 and 40,000 shares respectively.
Carlyle last pared its stake in November and, at that point, signed a three-month lock-up agreement with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, which managed the accelerated bookbuild. The banks have agreed to a partial waiver of the pact, which is due to expire on 15 February.
The parties did not disclose how much the shares changed hands for.
Carlyle’s holding in Altice is a hangover from its previous ownership of cable operator Numericable, which was swallowed up by the telecoms group last summer. The PE house received shares in Altice which equated to 6.7% of the telecoms group.
The November sale shrank the size of Carlyle and fellow Numericable investor Cinven’s combined holding in Altice from 10% to 7%. Neither Altice nor Carlyle would disclose the size of the firm’s stake now.
Altice listed early in 2014. Since then, its stock has risen more than 160% as the group has continued to plough ahead with inorganic growth, including the acquisitions of SFR and Virgin Mobile in France. It now has a market capitalisation of €18.6bn.
In January, Altice’s €7.4bn acquisition of PT Portugal was finally approved by the target’s main shareholder group.
