Altice in exclusive Portugal Telecom negotiations
December 1, 2014
Multinational cable and telecommunications company Altice has entered into an exclusivity agreement with Oi to agree the purchase of the Portuguese assets of Portugal Telecom.
Altice’s fully-financed, binding offer values Portugal Telecom at an enterprise value of €7.4 billion on a cash and debt-free free basis which includes €500 million consideration related to the future revenue generation of Portugal Telecom.
The transaction, net of financial debt, accrued post-retirement liabilities and other purchase price adjustments will be financed by new debt and existing cash from Altice.
Should a final agreement be entered in to, the transaction will require corporate approvals and will be subject to standard regulatory approvals for a transaction of this nature.
Altice confirmed November 3 it had made a €7.025 billion bid to acquire Portugal Telecom. Altice has been looking for acquisitions to increase its presence in Europe. In April, Altice-controlled French cableco Numericable agreed to buy France’s second largest mobile operator SFR from Vivendi.
Altice owns Portuguese cableco Cabovisão and is likely seek to merge its operations with Portugal Telecom’s Meo IPTV platform.
Reports emerged November 10 that Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of long-serving Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos, and a major shareholder in Portuguese pay-TV service provider Nos, was seeking to derail the acquisition, bidding €1.211 billion for Portugal Telecom SGPS, the holding company that owns a minority stake in the merged Oi-Portugal Telecom.
Portugal Telecom SGPS owns a 37 per cent stake in Oi.