Multinational cableco Altice has raised €1.3bn (US$1.76bn) after its initial public offering priced in the mid-range, giving the Luxembourg-based company a market capitalisation of €5.7bn (US$7.7bn).
Altice originally anticipated the pricing to fall…
Multinational cableco Altice has raised €1.3bn (US$1.76bn) after its initial public offering priced in the mid-range, giving the Luxembourg-based company a market capitalisation of €5.7bn (US$7.7bn).
Altice originally anticipated the pricing to fall between €24.75 and €31.25 per share, and the stock ended up beginning trading at €28.25.
Altice sold 26.5 million newly-issued shares raising €750m, while founder Patrick Drahi’s holding company, Next LP, disposed of 19.6 million shares to raise another €555m.
Following the listing, 22.8% of the company, which holds a 40% stake in Numericable, is floating on the market. That could rise to 26.2% if the greenshoe option is fully exercised.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley led the flotation, which Drahi said he was “very happy” with.
“This IPO has been a strategic priority for the group and I am very proud that the entrepreneurial cable company Altice has grown into the multinational cable business it is today,” Drahi said in a statement.
In addition to Goldman and Morgan Stanley, which acted as joint global coordinators, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC acted as joint bookrunners, while Credit Agricole and ING were joint lead managers.
Following the successful float, speculation has increased regarding a possible merger of Numericable and French mobile operator SFR, which is set to be spun-off from parent Vivendi later this year.
When the IPO was first announced Altice’s CEO Dexter Goei said that SFR and Bouygues Telecom were possible targets in France and that it was looking at the potential for a convergence play in the country.
However Altice has said it is looking at a lot of different possible M&A transactions. In its presentation to potential investors at the start of January Altice said it had identified up to 10 in-market consolidation opportunities, four opportunities to grow in new markets, and three non-cable telecom opportunities.
Bernstein Research analyst Robin Bienenstock said in a research report that Altice’s IPO may accelerate a merger of Numericable and SFR.
In 2013 Altice recorded €1.1bn in pro forma adjusted EBITDA for the first nine months of the year and made a number of additions to its portfolio, most notably in the Caribbean with its US$1.4bn purchase of Orange Dominicana.
Altice has operations in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Switzerland, Israel, a number of French Overseas Territories, and the Dominican Republic.
Its most high-profile holding is its 40% stake in Numericable, valued at around €1.4bn (US$1.9bn) following the French cableco’s IPO last year.
Altice made its first acquisition in 2002 and says it has completed 20 deals overall, including 13 in the last five years.