2023-09-07 10:01:04
Faced with dizzying amounts, and after several promises in recent years, Patrick Drahi seems determined to start reducing the debt of Altice, his telecom and media group. To the point of going so far as to sell part of the capital of SFR, its main asset in Europe. According to our information, the investment bank Lazard was in charge of this file, with the support of BNP Paribas. Objective: find the best potential buyers and put them in competition to raise the price. The size of the block offered for sale is not known. Or the expected price. Altice, Lazard and BNP Paribas do not comment.
“SFR is perceived as the Eiffel Tower (brand, networks, organization, quality, etc.) and we will have many options”, said Patrick Drahi, Wednesday, September 6, according to comments reported by investors gathered for a financial presentation in London. Acquired by Altice France in April 2014, after an epic battle against Bouygues Telecom, the operator is number two in France behind Orange. It has 20.5 million mobile customers and 6.5 million fixed (ADSL and fiber). But it suffers from a heavy debt: 23.8 billion euros as of June 30. A burden that will become increasingly heavy to bear due to the rise in interest rates in recent months, especially as it is going through a bad commercial patch. SFR has lost 235,000 mobile subscribers since the start of the year.
Despite these poor performances, investment funds could be interested in a piece of the capital of the telecom operator, a relatively safe and cash-generating sector. These investors also know Mr. Drahi well and some of them, like Cinven or Carlyle, have earned a lot of money over the past twenty years with him, especially during financial transactions on Numéricable, the ancestor of SFR.
Read also (2022): Article reserved for our subscribers Altice, the parent company of SFR, RMC and BFM-TV, tackles its mountain of debt
Dream of concentration of French operators
A participation of the three other French operators (Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Free) seems on the other hand more complicated to consider, even if they all dream, for years, of a concentration of the French market. Such an operation would trigger an in-depth examination by the European competition authorities. However, they remain reluctant to see national operators get closer, for fear that this will fuel a rise in the price of packages.
In this regard, the opinion of Brussels expected in the coming weeks on the project of merger, in Spain, of Orange and MasMovil will make it possible to see if the European Commission has changed its religion. Would a green light open a major rapprochement in France? “The potential for consolidation is greater, but we have to wait to see what will happen in Spain”explained Mr. Drahi.
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