Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has offered 8 billion euros ($8.66 billion) to buy the Portuguese subsidiary of Altice.
The electronic economic newspaper “Echo” reported that the Saudi Telecom Company “STC“And prominent telecoms businessman Patrick Drahi have halted exclusive talks about selling Drahi’s Altice Group business in Portugal to the Saudi company,” the report said.Reuters”.
The Echo report quoted two unnamed informed sources as saying that the Saudi company had offered 8 billion euros ($8.66 billion) to buy the Altice branch in Portugal, but talks over the final price over the past two weeks led to the collapse of the negotiations.
A spokesman for Altice Portugal declined to comment, and STC also declined to comment.
Altice Portugal is the country’s largest telecommunications company and operates fixed-line, mobile and pay-TV services, as well as owning a fibre network with Morgan Stanley’s infrastructure subsidiary.
Drahi is looking to sell the Portuguese subsidiary to reduce the debt of Altice’s transatlantic empire, which currently stands at about $60 billion, according to the group’s latest financial results.