Cinven and Carlyle in Numericable/Altice share transfer

The deal is being executed through the sale of shares for a combination of both cash and Altice shares. The two firms jointly hold a 34.6% stake in Numericable, comprising a 13.27% stake held by Cinven with the remainder of 21.32% owned by Carlyle.

A stake of 14% – comprising 6.5% from Cinven and 7.5% from Carlyle – will be sold by the two firms to Altice subsidiary Altice France at a price of €30.5 per share.

The remaining 20.6% is being exchanged for Altice shares at a ratio of one Numericable share to 0.97 Altice share.

Following completion of the Transaction, Altice will hold a 74.6% stake in Numericable.

Through the recent Numericable IPO and the acquisition of SFR, Cinven has generated an IRR of 160% and a capital gain of more than €1.5bn, which includes Altice shares worth €250m.

Numericable floated on the NYSE Euronext Paris in November last year, raising €652m, with a market cap of €3bn. Cinven's stake in Numericable decreased from 37.5% to 18.3% through a partial exit from the IPO and a sell-down of Numericable to Altice.

This decreased further to 13.3% in February through a further stake sell-down to Altice.

Prior to its listing, Cinven and Carlyle sought the merger of Numericable with their portfolio company Completel, a French fibre-optic broadband provider. Numericable was granted permission by its lenders to merge with Completel prior to the listing.

Numericable Group was formed in April 2005 through the acquisitions of France Télécom, Canal+ and TDF for €528m by Cinven and Altice. A debt package of €350m was provided by BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank, according to unquote" data. Cinven secured a 50.01% stake in the newly formed company, while Altice took a 10.01% shareholding. The remaining shares were held equally by France Télécom and Canal+ Group.

Cinven and Altice then acquired a 55% stake in listed company Completel in August 2007 for €788m. In December of the same year, Carlyle bought a 35% stake in the business at the same time that it acquired a 35% stake in Numericable from Cinven. According to unquote" data, the GP paid €700m for its stake in Numericable and paid more than €1bn overall for its stakes in both businesses. Carlyle took control of 21% of Altice's stake and 14% of Cinven's in Completel.

The deals gave both businesses a joint value of €2.86bn. In January 2008, the consortium embarked on a buyout of Completel to take it fully private.

Company
Paris-headquartered Numericable is a French cable operator, providing television packages, internet and telephone services.

The company recorded turnover of €1.3bn in 2013, as well as an adjusted EBITDA of €616m. As of December 2013, Numericable had debt totalling €2.57bn, equivalent to roughly 4.1x adjusted EBITDA.

People
Eric Denoyer is the CEO of Numericable.

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