Saudi Telecom and Altice end talks over Portugal sale

Saudi Telecom Group (STC) last week reportedly ended talks with Patrick Drahi, owner of telecoms group Altice, over a potential acquisition of Altice’s Portuguese unit.

STC had been seen as the preferred bidder for the unit. However, Eco reports that discussions about the final price of the operation led to a breakdown in talks.

It was reported that STC had offered €8 billion ($8.66bn) for Altice Portugal.

Earlier this year, it emerged that STC had seen off competition from Iliad Group, owned by Xavier Niel, to scoop up Altice’s Portuguese assets.

Altice, which is Portugal’s biggest telco, is looking to ease its debt, which sits at $60bn.

The company is open to selling its telecoms business and has recently spun off its French data center assets, forming a new company with more than 250 facilities in France, which was then sold to Morgan Stanley.

The Portuguese unit of Altice has also been separately looking to sell off its data center unit.

Altice Portugal has been grappling with a corruption probe, which led to the arrest of Drahi’s fellow co-founder and former chief operating officer Armando Pereira. Drahi told investors last August that he felt “betrayed.”