Altice, the investment vehicle of Patrick Drahi, has taken its share in French cablenet Numericable to 40%.
The company has acquired shares from funds controlled by Cinven Ltd and Carlyle Group.
A fortnight ago Numericable raised €652.2 million to fund investments in its network and pay off debt.
The transaction is subject to anti-trust approval and a waiver from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). It is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2014.
Patrick Drahi, Founder of Altice said: “Bringing together all of our key investments in the telecommunications space under Altice will strengthen our ability to advance our global strategic vision, enabling us to implement best practices across our international portfolio of companies and realize operational synergies. The combination of our controlling stake in the Numericable Group with the Altice VII Restricted Group under one corporate parent is in line with our strategic objectives and will maximize our flexibility of access to the capital markets to finance future growth.”
Altice will become the parent company for the Numericable Group and Altice VII and its subsidiaries. As part of the reorganization, the results of operations of Altice will reflect the consolidation of the Numericable Group with the Altice VII Restricted Group.
