Altice USA delivered a strong initial public offering, raising $1.92 billion, the biggest IPO for a U.S.-listed telecom in 17 years.
In an SEC note sent out Wednesday, Altice said it would sell just over 63.9 million shares priced at $30 per unit.
It’s the second biggest IPO of the year, following Snap Inc.’s $3.9 billion deal in March. In an encouraging sign for the U.S. arm of the European telecom conglomerate, Altice USA had originally targeted an IPO of only around $1.35 billion and ended up selling more shares than anticipated.
Altice USA opened trading Thursday at $31.60 a share with its price hitting $31.85 at the time this story was written.
Parent company Altice NV created Altice USA almost a year ago to the day when it closed on its $17.7 billion purchase of Cablevision Systems, as well as its $9.1 billion takeover of Suddenlink Communications.
Now the fourth-leading U.S. cable operator, Altice USA has clearly stated its intentions to acquire more U.S. cable companies.
The Euro parent will control 70.3% of the U.S. company’s stock and 98.3% of the voting rights. BC Partners purchased 49% of the shares sold in the IPO, with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board accounting for 32%.
RELATED: Comcast and cable industry downgraded to ‘neutral’ by analyst Moffett
As The Wall Street Journal noted, investors are betting on Altice’s recent track record. Shares of leading U.S. telecoms AT&T and Verizon are down 10% and 15% respectively this year. And investment analyst Craig Moffett just downgraded Comcast and all of cable to neutral, predicting an uptick in cord cutting and a slowdown of growth in broadband.
Altice NV, however, has seen its European-listed shares grow by around 20% this year.