Altice’s Portugal unit reportedly received a buyout offer worth more than €6 billion from private equity company Warburg Pincus, adding to interest from multiple industry players and rivalling investment organisations.

Financial Times reported Warburg Pincus launched the bid with Antonio Horta-Osorio, the former chairman of banking group Credit Suisse, with the two forming a partnership.

Altice is open to selling its Portugal telecoms business, earmarking early January 2024 for a resolution. Sources claim multiple players have shown an interest in a buyout, including US-based Apollo.

Altice owner Patrick Drahi is seeking asset sales to reduce a debt load which stands at €60 billion.

The company’s France business spun-off its data centre assets into a separate company and then sold off a 70 per cent stake in the entity to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners for €535 million last month. Notably, while Drahi is seeking to raise cash from sales, he did also move in 2023 to up his stake in BT to nearly 25 per cent, while maintaining he intends to make a full takeover attempt.  

For Warburg Pincus, the financial company has been active in the telecoms and technology sector in recent years, taking a stake in T-Mobile’s Netherlands business in 2022 and acquiring satellite company Inmarsat in 2019 alongside other funds.