Altice files planned SFR buyout with markets regulator

Cable and telecom investor Altice has filed its planned buyout offer for the remaining shares of French subsidiary SFR with the French markets authority, the AMF.

Altice has filed a buyout offer to be followed by a squeeze-out, offering €34.50 a share. Following completion, SFR will be delisted form the Euronext Paris exchange, probably early in the fourth quarter.

The transaction has yet to be approved by the AMF.

SFR’s board has issued a positive opinion on the offer after taking independent advice from Finexsi and hiring Perrella Weinberg Partners as financial advisors.

Altice previously attempted to acquire the shares in SFR that it did not already own last year, then amounting to 22.25% of the company’s stock. However, the AMF rejected the bid on the grounds that Altice had not provided sufficient information to shareholders.

Altice subsequently upped its stake in SFR in private off-market transactions, exchanging its own stock for shares in the operator. The company announced in August that it planned had crossed the 95% threshold of ownership and that it intended to file a buyout offer.