Altice USA CEO Dexter Goei has confirmed recent reports that the cable group is engaged with other parties regarding the potential sale of its Suddenlink operating unit. Speaking during the company’s 2Q22 earnings call, Mr Goei commented: ‘Clearly, we’ve gotten a lot of inquiry around the Suddenlink assets, which is why we’re engaging on being responsive here. [We are] embarking on our Suddenlink upgrade over the next year and thereafter, which, effectively, is a good time for us to pause here and look for potentially significantly accretive transactions for shareholders before we embark on a big upgrade. So, it’s the right time for us to be looking at this, given where we are in our capital deployment time frame.’
Last month it was reported that Altice USA was working with Goldman Sachs Group on the potential sale of its Suddenlink unit, which could fetch as much as USD20 billion. Altice USA was formed in June 2016, following the completion of Altice Group’s USD17.7 billion acquisition of Cablevision Systems (trading as Optimum). Previously, in December 2015, Altice closed the USD9.1 billion takeover of Suddenlink.