In the wake of its business restructuring announcement last week, speculation is mounting that Altice could mount a takeover offer for KPN.
Altice’s chief executive Dexter Goei was quoted in a Dutch newspaper as saying an acquisition of KPN would be beneficial for the economy and for the telco itself, Reuters reported.
In an interview with De Telegraaf, Goei said Altice is "in a position to invest far more each year in the Dutch network than KPN currently does," the newswire said.
However, he insisted that there were no talks ongoing between the two companies and that Altice is in no particular hurry to make a move.
On Friday Altice announced plans to restructure its business by merging its assets into a new Dutch subsidiary, a move it said will help it to fund acquisitions without impacting on executive chairman and founder Patrick Drahi’s control of the company.
"This will further strengthen Altice’s position in the next phase of value-enhancing growth," Goei said, in a statement.
Altice is pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy. It acquired French mobile operator SFR in 2014, and added Portugal Telecom and U.S. cableco Suddenlink to its portfolio this year.
It is also seeking to buy Bouygues Telecom. The French telco rebuffed its €10 billion bid last week, but Altice has made it clear that the offer still stands.
