Telecom: Mad rise of the stock market Altice – Le Figaro

Since its introduction in January 2014, the parent company of Numericable, SFR has seen its share price multiplied by 6. An increase due to acquisitions, but also the confidence of analysts on the group’s model .

What could be better? In eighteen months, the share price of Altice climbed 550%. The parent-Numericable SFR posted growth of its market capitalization worthy of a start-up, far from the standards of telecom groups! The Numericable, SFR title it was multiplied by 3.3 over the period. For comparison, last year, Stéphane Richard, the owner of Orange welcomed the progress recorded by his group the Exchange. With an increase of 62%, he pointed to the first place in the CAC 40 in terms of growth.

The trajectory of Altice, listed only in Amsterdam, and its French subsidiary, is listed in Paris is completely atypical. It is explained largely by the frantic pace of acquisition by Patrick Drahi engaged. Last year Numericable bought SFR. However, the new set is listed with the Stock Exchange ticker Numericable. The course logically built a tenfold increase in revenue to 11.3 billion euros and 5 net operating profit (EBITDA).

On the scale of Altice, External growth is comparable. In addition to SFR, the holding company include integrated Portugal Telecom and is about to complete the acquisition of the US cable operator Suddenlinks. The stock market performance reflects the dynamism of external growth, integrating the fact that all these operations will end in success. A key element of this success is the ability of subsidiaries to Patrick Drahi to raise the average revenue per user by encouraging customers to subscribe to contracts quadruple play (fixed telephone, mobile, Internet and TV). The group now has a market capitalization of 32.5 billion euros, for an enterprise value of 61, 9 billion. To finance its acquisitions, the businessman employs massively in debt.

Friday, Altice announced the merger of two entities, which will now be grouped under the name of Altice SA, a company registered in Luxembourg. A reconciliation which should enable it to strengthen its capacity to make new acquisitions. And eventually, optimize taxes.