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The move will see Morgan Stanley pay €2.3 billion for a minority stake in Altice Portugal’s nationwide fibre network
Altice Portugal has announced that it will sell off a minority stake in its Portuguese full fibre network to investment banking firm, Morgan Stanley.
Altice Portugal will sell off a 49.99 per cent stake in its fibre to the home (FTTH) network, for around €2.3 billion, according to reports in the press.
“I am very pleased that our partnership with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, initiated in the context of our Portuguese tower transaction in 2018, now continues with a transformational fibre project. Following this transaction, Altice Europe has obtained cash proceeds in excess of €5.7 billion through the transformational SFR FTTH transaction and the various tower sales and partnerships announced in 2018. Altice’s portfolio of infrastructure assets continues to grow,” said Patrick Drahi, founder of Altice.
Morgan Stanley will pay for its stake in three distinct payments, paying an initial €1.565 billion in 2020, with two subsequent payments of €375 million in December 2021 and December 2026. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020.
"We continue to focus on deleveraging Altice Europe through growing revenues and EBITDA, supplemented with the disposal proceeds from this transaction. This fantastic transaction with our long-standing partners at Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners will accelerate the deleveraging of the Group towards its stated leverage target. It will open the way to significant refinancing transactions in 2020 enabling us to accelerate our announced program of debt interest reduction," Drahi added.
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