Altice to sell Swiss assets

Altice is to sell its Swiss telecom solutions business and data centre operations to InfraVia Capital Partners in a deal that values the assets at CHF214 million. The move is the latest disposal from the troubled cable and telecom group as it seeks to reduce indebtedness and allay investors’ concerns.

Altice is selling Green.ch, which provides private and business customers with internet connections, hosted, cloud and multimedia services and data backup solutions, and Green Datacenter, which provides data center services for medium-sized and large companies in Switzerland, in Europe and elsewhgere.

The deal, which carries an enterprise value of approximately 9.9 times adjusted EBITDA, is expected to close early next year.

Altice last week put Altice Dominican Republic up for sale, according to the Financial Times, citing unnamed sources. Altice bought the unit from Orange in 2013 for €1.1 billion, outbidding Liberty Global, whose newly spun-off LiLaC division may be an obvious buyer for this asset.

The company has unveiled plans to de-lever its balance sheet and bring indebtedness down in line with or below its targets over time. It said it would not pursue “any new meaningful M&A opportunities” and would dispose of non-core assets, including its transmission tower portfolio.

Altice’s management have been engaged in a collective effort to shore up confidence in the group and halt the slide in its share price. The company has lost over half its value since it posted poor Q3 results at the start of November.