Altice USA has started a tender offer to buy back USD 2.5 billion worth of class A shares at USD 32.25-36 per share. The shares will represent 19.6-21.9 percent of all class A shares at 19 November, should the offer be fully subscribed, or 12.8-14.3 percent of all Altice USA shares.
The offer represents a premium of 0-12 percent to the closing price on 20 November of USD 32.27 per stock. It will expire at just before midnight New York City time on 21 December, subject to the completion of the company's sale of 49.99 percent of its Lightpath fibre enterprise business. Altice USA said it will pay for the tender with cash on hand, plus cash from operations, and if necessary, from borrowings under its revolving credit facility.
With the offer, the company is increasing its buyback target for the full year to USD 5.0 billion from 2.0 billion. It also now forecasts its 2020 year-end net leverage for the CSC Holdings debt silo to reach 5.0-5.5x times adjusted EBITDA. The company said it expects to return its net leverage target for CSC Holdings to 4.5-5.0x adjusted EBITDA, over time. The full share repurchase programme has been upped to USD 7.0 billion from 5.0 billion.
The company bought almost 22.7 million class A shares from 1 October to 20 November, for a total of USD 660 million, putting the year-to-date figure at USD 2.5 billion.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now
We welcome comments that add value to the discussion. We attempt to block comments that use offensive language or appear to be spam, and our editors frequently review the comments to ensure they are appropriate. If you see a comment that you believe is inappropriate to the discussion, you can bring it to our attention by using the report abuse links. As the comments are written and submitted by visitors of the Telecompaper website, they in no way represent the opinion of Telecompaper.