Altice says its renewed operational focus is already leading to improved subscriber numbers. Fibre additions in France were the best for two years while in Portugal they were at their highest ever.
69,000 new fibre customers were added in Q4 2017 in the French market, 199,000 across the year, as more attractive offers and new retention policies went to work.
Altice is the leading fibre operator in France with nearly 11 million homes passed.
Portugal, where Altice is already the leading fibre provider, saw 43,000 new additions came alongside a rapid expansion of its fibre coverage.
Dexter Goei, President of the Board of Altice NV, said: “After several years of acquisitions, 2017 was the year of integration and execution, with an ongoing focus on making our customer experience better. As well as accelerated investment into upgrading our fixed and mobile networks for better quality services, Altice rapidly expanded its media and advertising businesses as new areas of growth. In parallel, Altice has taken important steps to simplify the group and separate the business into a European and US group with distinct strategies.”
But the subscriber numbers were accompanied by a 1.9 per cent drop in overall revenues for its European operaions.
Altice confirmed plans to sell its tower businesses in France and Portugal with American Tower Corp. and private equity firm KKR & Co among the likely bidders.
Such a sale could reduce Altice’s debt by some €3 billion.
