Advanced Television

NextRadioTV, Altice partner for multimedia projects

July 27, 2015

Alain Weill, the Chairman, CEO, Founder and main shareholder of independent multimedia company NextRadioTV and Patrick Drahi, the Chairman and Founder of multinational cable, fibre, telecommunications, contents and media company Altice have signed a strategic partnership of their groups to invest in and to accelerate the development of multimedia projects in both France and other international markets.

Alain Weill and Altice will be partners in a joint-company in which Mr. Weill will control 51 per cent of the economic and voting rights and assume the role of Executive Chairman. In a first step, Weill’s current stake in NextRadioTV representing 37.77 per cent of economic rights and 48.59 per cent of voting rights will be transferred to this new Company.

This new Company will then launch in a second step a voluntary tender offer for 100 per cent of NextRadioTV share capital at a price of €37 per share, representing a premium of 30.5 per cent to the last-six-months volume-weighted average share price.

The filing of the tender offer with the France’s financial markets regulator the Autorité des Marchés Financiers will occur after the presentation of the transaction to the relevant regulatory and antitrust authorities (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel et Autorité de la Concurrence). The closing of the tender offer is expected by the end of 2015.

Through this new partnership, Weill will ultimately become a 24 per cent shareholder of a subsidiary of Altice dedicated to investments in media companies, with an on-going focus on international diversification outside of France, where growth and consolidation opportunities are numerous.Weill will join Altice’s Executive Committee as Managing Director of Altice Media responsible for all the media activities of Altice.

Alain Weill, Chairman of NextRadioTV , said that after 15 years of continued growth thanks to the success of its TV channels, radio stations and digital platforms, he was delighted to be part of this partnership between NextRadioTV and Patrick Drahi’s Altice. “This partnership will allow us to continue and accelerate the development of our media activities in France and abroad,” he added.

Dexter Goei, CEO of Altice, said that media and content were a major growth opportunity for Altice in France and in all of the countries where it waswas present. “The convergence of our telecom assets with digital distribution, channels, content development and content production are core to our long term strategy,” he stated.

Patrick Drahi, Chairman of Altice, said: “We are very excited to partner with Alain Weill, a great professional and talented entrepreneur, whom I have known and admired for almost 20 years. Alain Weill will lead our media division within Altice. The development and expansion into media and content in the countries where we are present brings an additional growth driver to Altice and offers attractive synergies with our telecom activities. This will allow us to offer the best content to our customers who already benefit from the best fibre-based fixed networks and 4G+ mobile networks. This partnership with NextRadioTV and Alain Weill represents a major step in our strategy,” he advised.

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