While Altice is trying to make multiple moves to pay off its debt, Free's parent company has finally closed the Meo acquisition.
The adventure of reducing the debt of SFR's parent company is still ongoing, but Iliad does not seem to be involved in it for the moment. Since Altice owes 24 billion euros in France, and 60 billion internationally, the group is looking for cash through sales, such as those of Altice Media or La Poste Mobile for example. Internationally, files have been opened, in particular regarding the sale of Meo, a Portuguese operator owned by Altice.
One of the candidates interested in the acquisition was Iliad, the sixth European group that owns the free group and aims to become more important. However, according to the information reverberationFree’s parent company has finally closed the case. That doesn’t mean Iliad is putting its overseas ambitions on hold; Xavier Niel has just launched a takeover bid for Millicom’s South American group.
On the Altice side, no offer has been made to unlock SFR's capital and some operations such as the sale of XP-Fibre do not reach the amounts expected by the group. Patrick Drahi's company, after having fought arm-wrestling, is ready to resume dialogue with its creditors.
This article was reprinted on Univers FreeBox.
