Altice announced that it's considering selling a stake in its US unit in an initial public offering. The company said it would offer a minority interest in Altice USA, which includes the cable operators Optimum and Suddenlink. The company gave no further details, saying a final decision had not been taken yet on the structure or timing of the IPO and there was no assurance it would go ahead.
Altice bought 70 percent of Suddenlink for USD 9.1 billion at the end of 2015, marking its entry on the US market. In June this year it completed the takeover of Cablevision, at an enterprise value of USD 17.7 billion. Private equity companies still hold minority shares in the operators.
The two operators were merged to form Altice USA, and the company has accelerated investment in their networks, most recently announcing plans to upgrade to FTTP. Together their networks pass over 8.4 million homes and they count 4.5 million customers, making Altice the fourth-largest cable operator in the US.
