Altice, the Luxembourg-based parent company of French cable operator Numericable, has signed an agreement with Carlyle Cable and Cinven to buy their respective 21.32 percent and 13.27 percent stakes in Numericable. Altice will pay EUR 30.50 per share in cash for a 14 percent stake in Numericable (6.5% Cinven, 7.5% Carlyle). This is a significant premium on Numericable's share price of EUR 26.435 the day before the announcement. Altice will buy the remainder of the shares with its own stock, offering 0.97 Altice share for each share of Numericable. The transaction will increase Altice's share in the capital and voting rights of Numericable to 74.6 percent.
The move comes as Altice won the bidding to buy Vivendi's French telecom operator SFR for EUR 13.5 billion in cash plus an around 20 percent stake in the combined SFR-Numericable. The news sent Numericable's stock 14 percent higher at EUR 30.05. Altice's acquisition of Carlyle and Cinven's Numericable shares is subject to obtaining an exemption from French stock market authority AMF from the obligation to launch a public tender offer on all Numericable shares.
