Altice, the acquisitive European telecoms group owned by Franco-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, is seeking to take a stake in France’s NextRadioTV, valuing the company at about €600m.
In a statement, Altice said that it would form a new company to launch a tender offer for 100 per cent of NextRadioTV’s share capital at €37 per share — a 30.5 per cent premium compared with the average price of the past six months.
Alain Weill, the radio and TV group’s founder and principal shareholder, would contribute his 37.8 per cent stake to the new organisation during an initial phase and become its executive chairman. Mr Weill would hold a 51 per cent stake in the new company — although Altice would have a call option on his shares, which it could exercise from March 2019.
Both NextRadioTV, which owns France’s influential BFM TV business channel and the RMC radio station, and Mr Drahi’s Altice cable and telecoms group, said that NextRadioTV’s board of directors unanimously approved the deal.
The proposed acquisition is the latest move by Mr Drahi in France’s rapidly consolidating media industry and follows his creation of the Altice Media Group, which includes Libération newspaper and the French assets of Belgian group Roularta, such as L’Express, L’Expansion and 20 other titles.
For now, Altice Media Group will remain separate from Mr Drahi’s proposed new company. But that could change in the coming months, people familiar with the matter have said.
Altice said that it would finance the acquisition of NextRadioTV through a capital increase and convertible bonds.
Mr Drahi’s company, which has emerged in recent years as one of Europe’s most acquisitive telecoms groups, said on Monday that it saw media as a central pillar to its growth strategy.
“Media and content are a major growth opportunity for Altice,” said Dexter Goei, the group’s chief executive officer. “The convergence of our telecoms assets with digital distribution, channels, content development and content production are core to our long-term strategy.”
Mr Drahi said: “The development and expansion into media and content in the countries where we are present brings an additional growth driver to Altice and offers attractive synergies with our telecoms activities.”
Altice has spent more than €36bn on acquisitions in the past year and a half, snapping up French mobile operator SFR and Portugal Telecom in the process. In May, the European cable operator went transatlantic, agreeing to buy 70 per cent of US-based Suddenlink for $6.7bn and giving Mr Drahi a foothold in the US.
Altice is a holding group that draws on the experience of Mr Drahi and his team in the cable sector. Many of them, including Mr Drahi, honed their skills either as an employee or a banker to Liberty Global, the world’s biggest cable company.
Like Liberty Global, Altice relies on capital markets to fund its growth, spreading its borrowing across its various units.
The group has benefited from a low interest rate environment that has left investors starved for returns. This has made the company popular with high-yield bond investors and allowed it to fund its expansion at more reasonable costs.