Altice Executes Fold-in Transactions and Financing of the Groupe Outremer Telecom S.A. Acquisition

Ropes & Gray advised Altice VII S.à r.L. on a $1.034 billion covenant lite term loan, a €250 million bond issuance and €125 million in other bank financing in connection with the folding in of certain businesses currently owned by Altice and financing of the acquisition of a majority ownership of Groupe Outremer Telecom S.A., a leading telecommunications operator in the French Overseas Territories.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by London high yield partner Michael Kazakevich with support from finance partner Mike Goetz and associates Eric Issadore and Alexander Robb.

“The fold-in of owned and newly acquired companies into the restricted group structure, the layering in of new tranches of debt and the refinancings across multiple European jurisdictions made for an extraordinarily complex transaction that had to be executed on a very aggressive timetable,” said Mr. Kazakevich. “We were delighted to help Altice execute this transformational financing,” added Mr. Kazakevich.

“The ability of our market-leading telecom finance team to deploy both bank and bond resources from our London office and U.S. bank expertise from our New York office enabled us to work across geographies and time zones to provide Altice with the legal support it needed to execute such an important transaction,” said Mr. Goetz.

The matter included a senior secured delayed draw term loan facility with a commitment of up to $1.034 billion, an issuance of €250 million of senior notes, a new €50 million super senior revolving credit facility and a new €75 million guarantee facility.