Altice USA sees valuation too far apart from Charter for deal - CEO
12 SEP 2017
Altice USA [NYSE: ATUS] is not desperate to move on Charter Communications [NASDAQ: CHTR], and is focused on "running its business," CEO Dexter Goei told this news service.
This news service has previously reported that the company was discussing possible financing for a bid on Charter, based in Stamford, Connecticut.
Goei, speaking on the sidelines of the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference in New York, stressed that Bethpage, NY-based Altice did not initiate the current round of speculation about a Charter deal. Instead, it looked at whether a deal was possible in reaction to reports of its "peers" also looking at Charter, Goei said.
SoftBank [TYO: 9984] and Verizon [NYSE: VZ] have also reportedly considered bids for the second-largest US cable company.
Goei said Altice is not monomaniacally focused on US cable-sector consolidation. For the moment, Goei said that he considers the "relative valuations" of Charter and Altice to be off. Altice's market cap is USD 23.94bn and Charter's is USD 99.1bn while Liberty Broadband [NASDAQ:LBRDA], whose principal asset is a stake in Charter, has a market cap of USD 18bn.
Altice can focus on organic growth to remedy its side of that relationship, Goei said. He said that a deal with Charter is something that could make sense in the long term.
During his presentation to the audience, Goei said that Altice USA is focused on "cable, cable, cable," and that it would not jump for a deal outside of its main vertical in the near term. He also talked down the possibility of pursuing an MVNO agreement and organically moving into wireless, as Charter is doing, saying that an MVNO is not a "must have," particularly after the wireless industry's move to unlimited plans changed the paradigm of that space.