(Bloomberg) — Altice France has held talks with funds including Apollo Global Management about raising new debt to repay looming maturities, a move that would potentially hurt existing creditors, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The embattled telecommunications company approached funds that aren’t existing creditors to discuss this option, said the people, asking not to be named discussing private information. The new debt would be backed by assets in so-called unrestricted subsidiaries, meaning that they are out of the reach of creditors.
Altice, owned by billionaire Patrick Drahi, is in the midst of negotiating a solution with creditors to slash its €24.4 billion ($27.2 billion) debt pile and reduce leverage to below four times earnings.
Secured creditors have refused its request to take a 20% haircut and have instead put forward a proposal that could potentially see Drahi lose control. Separately, the company is also negotiating with a group of unsecured creditors on ways to reduce that part of its debt.
Any deal to raise additional funds wouldn’t impact bondholders and lenders with debt due next year, since they would get repaid. However, it could harm the recovery for creditors with debt maturing later on in case of default or hamper their negotiating position in a restructuring.
Altice France’s secured bonds due January 2028 fell as much as 2.2 cents on the euro to 70 cents on Friday, the biggest drop in six months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Spokespeople for Altice and Apollo declined to comment.
Altice has €1.3 billion of debt coming due next year. It is counting on €2.5 billion in asset sales — including its stake in La Poste Telecom — and about €1 billion from a dividend recapitalization of XpFibre that could be used in talks with creditors.
“Altice France’s liquidity appears very tight ahead of January and February 2025 debt maturities, of which around €710 million remains after recent repurchases,” said Aidan Cheslin, a senior credit analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “Disposal proceeds from Media and data centers would theoretically moderate concerns, but these are being withheld from the restricted group.”
In an earnings call in March, management said that in order to achieve the deleveraging level it was targeting, that would require creditor participation in “discounted transactions” including exchange offers, tenders or repurchases.
A group of creditors holding most of Altice’s €20.2 billion secured debt have until Monday to sign an extension to their agreement to present a common front in the negotiations with the company, according to separate people familiar with the company.
The current deal, aimed at avoiding divide and conquer tactics that would harm their position, ends in February. BlackRock Inc., Elliott Investment Management and Pacific Investment Management Co. are among the investors in the secured debt.
(Updates with bond reaction in sixth paragraph and additional context in last paragraph.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.