Altice to sell Portugal’s Cabovisão
March 18, 2015
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
France’s Altice has confirmed it is planning to sell Portuguese cable TV operator Cabovisão.
Speaking to journalists in Paris, the co-founder of Altice, Armando Pereira, said that his company may sell Cabovisão, to ensure that Portugal’s Competition Authority gives the green light for the purchase of telecommunications operator PT Portugal.
Altice group is planning to buy PT Portugal that, among other services, owns mobile telephony and pay-TV unit Meo and internet portal Sapo, for €7.4 billion, after the shareholders of PT SGPS approved the deal in January.
Pereira added that interest has already been expressed in buying Cabovisão, but declined to reveal names, ensuring only that “negotiations are underway”. Last week, Vodafone Portugal admitted it was evaluating the acquisition of Cabovisão but stressed that the analysis will depend on the required conditions. Portuguese telecommunications operator Nos is also known to be interested in the sale of Cabovisão.
Altice purchased Cabovisão in February 2012 from Canada’s Cogeco Cable for €45 million.
Earlier this month, Cabovisao reported a 13 per cent drop in 2014 revenue to €182.8 million, while the customer base was down 7.6 per cent to 219,000. The operator had 149,000 broadband customers and 207,000 telephone customers at the end of December 2014.