Luxembourg-based telecoms holding Altice has offered a number of concessions in a bid to gain regulatory approval for its previously-announced €7.4bn (US$8.3bn) acquisition of PT Portugal, the EU competition authority said in a filing.
The watchdog,…
Luxembourg-based telecoms holding Altice has offered a number of concessions in a bid to gain regulatory approval for its previously-announced €7.4bn (US$8.3bn) acquisition of PT Portugal, the EU competition authority said in a filing.
The watchdog, which is due to decide on the deal by 20 April, did not elaborate on the types of remedies the group had agreed to offer.
An Altice spokesperson declined to provide further details.
Typically, concessions include non-core asset or spectrum disposals, as well network sharing agreements.
In recent months, Portuguese media reported that Patrick Drahi-controlled Altice, which already operates in Portugal via cableco Cabovisao and telecoms unit Oni, was mulling a sale of these assets to clear the way for the EU approval of the deal.
However, in a January statement, Altice said it would combine PT with its existing operations.
“We believe that after completion of the PT Portugal acquisition, we will be a leading telecommunications operator in B2C and B2B segment and the second largest service provider of B2C pay television services in Portugal,” the telco noted.
Altice – which also operates in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Israel and the Caribbean – had agreed to acquire PT Portugal, which comprises Portuguese and Hungarian assets, from Brazilian telco Oi last December.
The Rio de Janeiro-based carrier had inherited the assets following its ill-fated merger with PT, first announced in October 2013, which had aimed to create an integrated telecoms operator for all Portuguese-speaking countries.
However, the deal soured in July 2014 after Rioforte, a unit of collapsed banking group Banco Espirito Santo (BES), defaulted on a nearly €900m debt payment to the Portuguese operator, forcing its holding company -PT SGPS- to reduce its stake in the combined entity from 37.4% to 25.6%.