Altice Europe announced that its French fibre venture SFR FTTH has agreed to acquire infrastructure operator Covage for a total cash consideration of EUR 1.0 billion. The deal was reached with the operator's two main shareholders, private equity firm Partners Group and Cube Infrastructure Fund. The latter was reported to have hired Morgan Stanley earlier this year to find a buyer for its 50 percent stake in Covage.
Allianz Capital Partners (ACP), AXA Investment Managers and Canadian investment firm Omers Infrastructure, which own a combined 49.99 percent stake in SFR FTTH, will fund the deal with a EUR 465 million cash equity contribution. The same amount will come from Altice, with the remaining EUR 70 million raised from debt. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020.
Altice said that Covage plans to reach a FTTP footprint of 2.4 million French premises in the coming years, including the 800,000 homes and businesses already covered by the operator's infrastructure. In comparison, SFR FTTH has so far passed 1.7 million premises, committing to a footprint of 5.4 million overall. The merger with Covage will bring this total to 8 million over the next three to four years, including 2.5 million already built.
