Altice aims to raise from the sale of its Dominic Republic business

Telecoms and cable group Altice hopes to raise as much as 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) from the sale of its Dominican Republic business as it seeks to reduce debt and improve its performance.

This week, Altice said it had identified assets that could be sold, including its portfolio of telecoms towers, and that sales could start as early as the first half of 2018.

Altice’s Dominican Republic telecoms business generated 718 million euros in revenue last year.

The group’s shares rose after a potential sale of the asset was reported. They closed up  at 7.85 euros.

ALTICE S.A is a listed company active in the field of telephony and cable. It was founded in 2002 by Patrick Drahi and has grown through acquisitions into a large telecom and cable company active in Europe and the United States. It has a market capitalization of US$34 billion, as of May 2015. As of 2016, the company has over 50 million internet, TV, and phone customers in Western Europe, the U.S., Israel, and the Caribbean. In December 2016, Altice announced its deal to sell SFR Belux to Telenet for € 400 million. In March 2017, Altice acquired video ad tech firm Teads for US $ 307 million.