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Cable group could raise 500 million from sale of SFR Belgium, sources say.
Altice is considering the sale of its Belgian operations with a view to narrowing its focus on its bigger businesses in other markets, according to media reports this week.
The cable group is working with advisory firm Lazard on the potential sale of SFR Belgium via a deal worth as much as €500 million, the Financial Times cited unnamed sources as saying.
SFR Belgium is a cable TV operator that also offers broadband Internet, fixed-line telephony and mobile services via an MVNO arrangement.
The unit had 109,000 unique fibre customers at the end of Q1 across Belgium and Luxembourg, and 233,000 fibre RGUs, including 117,000 pay TV customers. Mobile customers in Belgium alone numbered 5,000.
Altice has made no secret of the fact that it is reshaping its business, although to date its M&A activities have been heavily weighted towards acquisition.
Last month it shuffled its top executives, appointing a new CEO in Michel Combes to free up his predecessor Dexter Goei to head up Altice USA, a new unit created to house its recent acquisitions in the U.S.
Altice closed the acquisition of Cablevision two weeks ago to become the fourth largest cable operator in the U.S., having added Suddenlink to its portfolio last year.
In addition to its new U.S. business, Altice manages a number of key operations in Europe, including Numericable-SFR in France and Meo in Portugal. Together, the three businesses accounted for around 87% of group revenues in the first quarter of 2016 and that percentage will only increase with the inclusion of Cablevision.
Thus it seems the firm is focusing its attentions on its bigger businesses and considering parting with the smaller ones.
