Investors line up for round two bidding for Altice fibre and Portuguese assets

Multiple investors have been shortlisted by Altice Group for the sale of its highly-prized French fibre business as well as for its scandal-hit Portuguese operation, according to press reports.

According to Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, a list of potential bidders including KKR, Macquarie, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec and Global Infrastructure Partners have lined up to take part in the next stage of bidding for Altice’s 50.1% stake in XpFibre, the heavily indebted company’s prized French fibre outfit.

No financial details have been reported.

The potential sale of XpFibre by Patrick Drahi’s group represents something of a volte face from the position stated by Drahi when he faced debt investors last August. At the time, Altice management’s position was that they intended to fully consolidate the unit, a ibre building outfit created from the merger of SFR’s fibre activities with FTTH infrastructure wholesaler Covage, because it was expected to “become a cash cow” from 2025 when the fibre build is complete, delivering more cash flow to service debt.

However, Altice’s debt problem means that its position on this, and on much else, has evolved.

A separate Bloomberg report meanwhile has identified Saudi Telecom Co (STC) and Xavier Niel’s Iliad Group as among those to progress to the second state of bidding for Altice Portugal’s assets, along with Warburg Pincus, which has reportedly teamed up with Zeno Partners and former Credit Suisse Group chairman António Horta-Osório.

The latter group was reported by the Financial Times to have made a €6 billion bid for Altice Portugal in December, along with STC.

According to Bloomberg, other groups including Apollo Global Management and CVC Capital Partners are no longer in the running.

Altice has reportedly been looking to get as much as €8-€10 billion for the Portuguese unit, which was hit by scandal when Altice co-founder Armando Pereira was arrested as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe last year.