North American private capital manager Warburg Pincus and Portuguese banker Antonio Horta Osorio, former head of Credit Suisse and Lloyds Bank, are preparing a bid that could reach up to six billion euros for Altice Group’s telecommunications assets in Portugal.
The news was published in the newspaper this evening Financial Timeswhich cites sources close to the operation.
If the bid is confirmed, it is another proposal in the race for assets Altice will put up for sale, which includes Meo’s Portugal telecoms operation.
The British newspaper specializing in economic and financial affairs states that since the departure of Credit Suisse at the request of the remainder of the board of directors of the Swiss financial institution due to violating quarantine rules during the epidemic, the former president of Santander in Portugal has stayed away from the matter. From the public spotlight. He is currently a consultant for the Italian companies Mediabanca and Cerebus, in addition to being a director in several other companies. Since 2022, he has been Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of BIAL.
According to the footwhich did not identify sources, says Horta Osório is more than just an advisor in Warburg’s potential bid, positioning himself as a partner of the manager and “could take on a role in the business” if the takeover goes through.
The newspaper also states that Altice is open to proposals to buy part of its assets until the beginning of January, already knowing of interest from Apollo and Saudi Telecom.
Time is running against Patrick Drahi, founder and president of the Altice Group, who faces debts worth $60 billion accumulated by the group, which has a presence in several countries, in addition to Portugal. It will be the assets in this country, in France, the United States and Israel, that will be on Drahi’s priority sales list.
Warburg, which recently raised €17 billion in capital, contextualizes the crisis foot, made a series of investments in the fields of communications and technology, including T-Mobile, in a deal that values this Dutch company at 5.1 billion euros. In 2019, it has already paid another six billion euros to acquire the satellite company Inmarsat.
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