Patrick Drahi Looking To Raise One Billion Dollars For The Altice Group

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Drahi, owner of the Altice telecoms group, intends to raise the money through floating 25% of his company’s  shares  on Euronext, the electronic stock exchange based in Amsterdam.

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Patrick-Drahi Patrick Drahi / Emil Salman

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Patrick Drahi, the French based telecoms magnate has recently announced his intention to out up around 25% of the Altice Group’s equity through an initial public offering. According to company sources the partial floatation is being carried out to both reduce the group’s debt levels as well as fund future acquisitions.

Over the past decade,   under Drahi’s guidance. Altice has grown to become one of the largest cable operators in Europe, largely  through the  prudent acquisition of a number of companies involved in the telecommunications  industries .

Currently  Altice is in the process of  raising their  stake in Numericable, a France based  cable operator to 40 per cent.  Once the deal is completed Numericable would become  Altice’s largest asset, surpassing the share holdings that the company holds in  cable and telecoms suppliers in Belgium and Israel.

In late 2013, Drahi also acquired a telecommunications company based  in the Dominican Republic from  Orange, paying out  $1.4 billion for the company, which will provide Altice with  a  strategic advantage for  bolstering their  existing operations in the French-speaking islands in the Carribean.

Currently  Altice  provides either cable or telecommunication services to close to fourteen million  homes throughout the world, reported profits of € 1 billion  on income of €2.4bn  for the nine months ending in  September 2014.

Patrick Drahi is estimated to have a  personal fortune of around 800 million euros.

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