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Cable group also predicts revenue and adjusted EBITDA trends will continue to improve in France.
Altice reported steady earnings growth in the second quarter of this year, in no small part due to a good performance from its recently-acquired U.S. businesses.
The cable group posted adjusted EBITDA of €2.27 billion for the three months to the end of June, an increase of 2.7% on the year-earlier period.
Consolidated group revenues fell by 2.6% to €5.83 billion, but the firm’s EBITDA margin increased to 38.9% from 36.9%.
Q2 brought big changes for Altice, particularly across the Atlantic.
"Having successfully closed the Cablevision acquisition, Altice USA has become the fourth largest cable operator in the attractive and competitive U.S. market," Altice’s recently-appointed CEO Michel Combes said, in a statement accompanying the results.
"We are very excited about the current performance and future prospects for both Suddenlink and [Cablevision’s operating brand] Optimum," Combes said. "We are looking forward, with [Altice USA chief executive] Dexter Goei, to successfully entering a new era for our businesses across the U.S. which are clearly going to be a huge part of Altice’s new growth story."
Indeed, Altice USA contributed adjusted EBITDA of €729.2 million in the second quarter, an increase of 11.2% on the year-ago quarter. Revenues across the pond grew by 0.1% to €2 billion.
The group’s biggest division is still its French unit, which brought in €2.77 billion in revenues in Q2, down 4.4%, and EBITDA of €1.04 billion, a decrease of 3.8%.
However, the company insists its prospects in France are improving.
"It has been another commercially challenging quarter for SFR in France but we are confident the revenue and adjusted EBITDA trends will continue to improve with our fibre expansion and accelerated 4G/4G+ network investment programme, led by Michel Paulin, already seeing measurable benefits in terms of better quality of service and commercial performance," Combes said.
"We have also now agreed with labour unions on the next phase of the transformation of the company," he added.
Late last week the Wall Street Journal reported that SFR had brokered a deal with two unions that will enable it to a cut a third of its staff over the next three years.
