Altice SFR France - comment

Although the cleansing documents from Altice France were not specifically mentioned, creditors and the market assume that the 50.1% XPFibre stake would be sold to reduce debt further.  BFMTV is carrying a story this morning that an internal email from the CEO refers to further debt reduction beyond the restructuring and that the process for the sale of XpFibre has already commenced.  XpFibre is 50.1% owned by Altice France and as part of the restructuring, the entity will be returned within the restricted group. BFMTV further reports of the potential interested parties, including KKR, Ardian, GIP and CDPQ, the Quebec Pension fund.  

We view this story as premature.  There is no doubt that a sales process will be launched, but the timing of any sale is unlikely to be this year in our opinion, due to Altice SFR implementing the restructuring and more importantly, post-restructuring no longer being a forced seller.  Expect further noise around this story over the next couple of months.