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Altice is controlled by billionaire Patrick Drahi, who has been
on a buying spree in the past 18 months that has seen his group
purchase four companies and make a bid for smaller French rival
Bouygues Telecom, which was rejected.
Under the restructuring, Altice shareholders would receive two
types of new shares and voting rights replacing their existing
shares, assuming they approve the move at an extraordinary
general meeting in the first week of July.
Before the change is made, Altice will transfer most of its
assets and liabilities to a new Luxembourg-based subsidiary,
Altice Luxembourg SA, it said. The new Dutch company will be the
parent of Altice Luxembourg.
"The group will benefit from a powerful equity acquisition
currency without prejudicing voting control of the company's
founding shareholder group," Chief Executive Dexter Goei said in
a statement.
"This will further strengthen Altice's position in the next
phase of value-enhancing growth."
Drahi's Numericable cable company beat Bouygues last year to buy
Vivendi's SFR, the second-biggest French mobile firm, to create
Numericable-SFR.
Altice on Thursday defended its recent bid for Bouygues Telecom.
After the market closed Altice confirmed it valued France's No.3
mobile operator at "a minimum of 10 billion euros" ($11.2
billion) and said its offer remained on the table.
Altice Group is a multinational cable and telecommunications
company with operations in France, Israel, Belgium, Luxembourg,
Portugal, in French Overseas Territories and Switzerland.
Altice shares were trading 0.2 percent lower at 130.9 euros on
Euronext Amsterdam by 0744 GMT.
($1 = 0.8927 euros)
(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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