News
Shortlisted bidders include KKR, Macquarie, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ), and Global Infrastructure Partners
According to a report from Bloomberg, numerous major players are lining up to bid for Altice Group’s 50.1% stake in XpFibre, France’s largest alterative fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) wholesaler.
Potential suitors for the stake include KKR & Co., Macquarie Group, CDPQ, and Global Infrastructure Partners, according to anonymous sources.
No financial details behind the potential bids have been revealed.
The news comes just months after billionaire Patrick Drahi announced that numerous Altice Group assets were being put up for sale, including a minority stake in Altice France, to tackle the Group’s $60 billion debt pile.
However, it has quickly became apparent that a stake in mobile operator Altice France (SFR) is in fact far less appealing than that of FTTH unit XpFibre, which currently covers more than 5 million premises across France.
XpFibre was created from the spin off of Altic France’s FTTH unit back in 2018, with Allianz Capital Partners (ACP), AXA Investment Managers, and Canadian investment firm Omers Infrastructure investing in the venture to jointly acquire a 49.9% stake in the business for €1.7 billion.
Stakes in Altice France and XpFibre are not the only assets from Altice to be put on the chopping block. In December, Altice Portugal received a €6 billion takeover offer from Warburg Pincus, with additional companies such as stc and Iliad potentially also looking to make a bid for the business.
Altice also recently spun off its data centre assets into a separate business, selling a 70% stake in the new entity to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners for just over half a billion euros last month.
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