Altice moves ahead with Cablevision deal financing

By Leigh Thomas

PARIS (Reuters) - European telecommunications company Altice (ATCA.AS) moved ahead on Thursday with the debt-heavy financing for its takeover of U.S.-based Cablevision (CVC.N).

The holding company controlled by telecoms tycoon Patrick Drahi launched a capital hike worth about 1.8 billion euros (1.3 billion pounds) to help finance the deal, and said it had priced a bond issuance worth $8.6 billion.

The equity part of the move - flagged when it announced the acquisition on Sept. 17 - would increase its capital by about 10 percent for its A and B shares and was being done via an accelerated placement with institutional investors, it said.

JP Morgan was the coordinator and bookrunner for the deal, it added.

Altice shares were down 3.98 percent at 17.985 euros at 0749 GMT. One Paris-based trader said the capital hike was aimed at reassuring investors amid growing concerns about its debt pile.

Altice made a big move into the U.S. market in September with plans to buy Cablevision, the fourth-largest U.S. operator, for $17.7 billion including debt.

Drahi has built up a debt-financed telecoms and cable empire with interests ranging from France, to Portugal, Israel and the United States, which it entered in May by buying a small cable group called Suddenlink for $9.1 billion.

The company said on Thursday that it had successfully issued $8.6 billion of new debt in connection with the Cablevision deal.

Combined with debt from Cablevision, total debt financing of the deal stood at $14.5 billion with an average maturity of 6.6 years and an average cost of 7.5 percent, Altice said.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Additional reporting by Alexandre Boksenbaum-Granier; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Andrew Callus)