Altice France’s $26 Billion Debt Showdown: Court Decision to Reshape Telecom Giant’s Future

It’s D-Day. The Paris Commercial Court is due to rule on Monday on the future of Altice France, which is 24.1 billion euros in debt. The group of billionaire Patrick Drahi announced at the end of May that it would enter into an accelerated safeguard procedure. Another step in the long process of financial restructuring of its 24 billion euros of debt. It was a formality, as the group’s creditors had massively adopted the restructuring plan negotiated with Patrick Drahi’s teams several weeks ago. It involves a reduction by these creditors of the debt by 8.6 billion euros, in return for an increase in their stake in the capital.

The group expects the Paris Commercial Court to validate the agreement reached with the creditors. This will be a victory for it. "At a hearing on July 22, the public prosecutor’s office requested the adoption of the debt restructuring plan, while adding a major caveat: for the public prosecutor’s office, three of the group’s companies, the SFR SA operator, SFR Fibre and Completel (the business division) should be excluded from the agreement," reports Cnews. If the court were to follow these requisitions, the largest private debt restructuring in France would be rendered null and void. Explanation: in the eyes of the company’s management, the agreement is designed as a whole that must include all the group’s subsidiaries.

"The exclusion of the subsidiaries would therefore send the creditors and the group back to the negotiating table," analyzes the same source.