Altice has put in place the final piece of the puzzle in regard to funding its purchase of Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), with two investment funds contributing $1 billion for a 30 percent stake in the MSO.
The agreement, secured with private equity firm BC Partners and Canadian pension fund CPP Investment Board, now means that Altice's proposed purchase of Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision is fully funded.
Altice had already sold $8.6 billion in new Cablevision debt and $1.8 billion in new equity to finance the $17.7 billion purchase, which includes debt.
The same private equity groups had already partnered with Altice on its $9.1 billion deal over the spring to purchase a controlling interest in Suddenlink Communications.
"We negotiated as part of Suddenlink an option to invest pro-rata alongside them on any future deals they have in North America," Shane Feeney, head of direct private equity at Canada Pension, said in an interview with Bloomberg.
If and when both deals gain regulatory approval, Altice will be the fourth biggest cable operator in the U.S., with 4.6 million customers across 20 states.
"[We] are highly confident in Altice's ability to further enhance network quality, increase customer satisfaction, and meaningfully improve financial performance at Cablevision," said Raymond Svider, co-chairman and managing partner of BC Partners, to the Wall Street Journal.
For more:
- read this Bloomberg story
- read this Wall Street Journal story
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