Altice Portugal, the largest FTTH wholesaler in the country, said it would sell wholesale services to all operators at the same financial terms, including a minority stake in its Portuguese full fiber network to investment banking firm, Morgan Stanley. According to press reports, the wholesaler will sell off a 49.99 percent stake in its fiber to the home network, for around €2.3 billion.
“I am very pleased that our partnership with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, initiated in the context of our Portuguese tower transaction in 2018, now continues with a transformational fiber project. Following this transaction, Altice Europe has obtained cash proceeds in excess of €5.7 billion through the transformational SFR FTTH transaction and the various tower sales and partnerships announced in 2018. Altice’s portfolio of infrastructure assets continues to grow,” said Patrick Drahi, Founder of Altice.
Drahi also said that the transaction would "accelerate the deleveraging of the Group towards its stated leverage target," and "open the way to significant refinancing transactions in 2020." The cash deal is expected to close in the first half of next year. Morgan Stanley will close off the transaction and guarantee its stake in three distinct payments, an initial €1.565 billion in 2020, with two subsequent payments of €375 million in December 2021 and December 2026. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020.
"We continue to focus on deleveraging Altice Europe through growing revenues and EBITDA, supplemented with the disposal proceeds from this transaction. This fantastic transaction with our long-standing partners at Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners will accelerate the deleveraging of the Group towards its stated leverage target. It will open the way to significant refinancing transactions in 2020 enabling us to accelerate our announced program of debt interest reduction," Drahi added.