Paris (Reuters) -Altice France announced on Monday the validation by the Paris economic activity court of its accelerated safeguard procedure providing for a restructuring of its heavy debt, a decision which raises questions about the future of the SFR subsidiary.
After months of negotiations with his creditors, Altice France, founded by Patrick Drahi, announced in February an agreement to reduce his debt from 24.1 billion to 15.5 billion euros but this plan was still to obtain the approval of the court.
This validated the restructuring plan for the group and all of its subsidiaries, including SFR, said Altice France in a press release. He did not follow the prosecution requisitions, which had requested the exclusion of three subsidiaries of the group including the telecom operator.
“This restructuring, anticipated for a long time to avoid being back to the wall, will allow us to take back our destiny in hand and give our group a new future”, write in an internal email obtained by Reuters the CEO of Altice France Arthur Dreyfus and that of SFR, Mathieu Coq.
The validation of the restructuring plan could open the way to a sale of the telecom operator which arouses the lust of its main competitors, to the great concern of certain unions of the group.
“No offer, not even indicative, has been received on date,” said Arthur Dreyfus and Mathieu Coq in their email, refuting a restructuring intended to “dress the SFR bride” for a transfer.
“If we were to receive one, whatever it is and wherever it comes from, our responsibility (and that of our shareholders) will be to study it,” they add nevertheless.
(Written by Etienne Breban and Blandine Hénault, edited by Zhifan Liu)
Copyright © 2025 Thomson Reuters
