Altice made a binding offer to purchase the Portuguese assets of Portugal Telecom (PT) from Brazilian operator group Oi for around €7 billion.
The bid covers the existing business of PT outside Africa, and excludes the operator’s debt securities, which previously threatened to derail the merger of PT and Oi.
In October, Oi said its financial adviser Banco BTG Pactual had received inquiries from “several interested parties (including Altice)” with an eye on a bid for Portugal Telecom, or its non-strategic assets.
The offer from Altice includes a €400 million earn-out related to the future revenue generation of PT, and an earn out for the same value related to future generation of EBITDA less capex.
If a deal was agreed, Altice would finance the transaction thRough new debt and existing cash.
Altice is in the process of acquiring French mobile operator SFR for €17 billion and received the green light from competition authorities last month.
Separately, Bloomberg reported that African operator groups MTN and Vodacom are examining the possibility of purchasing Oi’s minority stake in Unitel, which is the largest mobile operator in Angola.
It was reported in August that Oi was in talks to sell its stake in Unitel for around $2 billion. Oi acquired the stake in Unitel in May as part of its merger with Portugal Telecom.
According to Bloomberg, MTN and Vodacom have been looking for acquisition opportunities in markets with low wireless usage, high economic output and large populations.
It was reported last week that Oi, along with America Movil and Telefonica, made a $13.1 billion bid for TIM, Telecom Italia’s Brazilian unit. Oi is the smallest mobile operator in Brazil but has a sizeable fixed line presence.
The sale of its stake in Unitel would help fund the TIM deal, in which Oi would reportedly secure 28 per cent of the business.
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