Altice looking at sale of Belgian unit

Telecom and cable group Altice is exploring options to sell its Belgian unit, according to a report in the Financial Times.

According to the paper, Altice is working with Lazard to explore the sale of SFR Belgium, with a value of up to €500 million placed on the unit.

The sale of its Belgian business would be a rare disposal for Altice, which has focused on building scale across Europe and, more recently, the US, with a series of high-profile acquisitions including France’s SFR, Portugal Telecom, US cable operator Suddenlink and, more recently, New York cable operator Cablevision.

Altice last year lost out to Liberty Global in a battle to acquire Belgian mobile network operator BASE Company.

SFR Belgium – formerly Coditel Brabant – has about 100,000 customers and posted revenue of €75 million last year.