In a statement, French parent company, Altice Europa, said that there are currently more than 4 million homes with Meo fibre in Portugal.
The deal, which values the new unit set up for the purpose at €4.63 billion, is expected to bring Meo €1.565 billion next year, but that could rise to €2.315 billion if it achieves a good financial performance, with Altice pocketing €375 million in December 2021 and the same amount again in December 2026.
“I am very pleased that our partnership with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, initiated in the context of our Portuguese tower transaction in 2018, now continues with a transformational fibre project,” the statement quotes Altice Europe’s founder, Patrick Drahi, in the statement. “Following this transaction, Altice Europe has obtained cash proceeds in excess of €5.7 billion through the transformational SFR [Altice telecoms unit in France] FTTH [fibre to the home] transaction and the various tower sales and partnerships announced in 2018.”
The statement stresses the importance of the deal to reduce Altice’s debt mountain with a view to achieving a target of €0.7 billion in annual savings.
“This fantastic transaction with our long-standing partners at Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners will accelerate the deleveraging of the Group towards its stated leverage target,” Drahi said. “It will open the way to significant refinancing transactions in 2020 enabling us to accelerate our announced programme of debt interest reduction.”