By Tom Fairless
Brussels--Europe's competition regulator said it approved
Luxembourg-based Altice SA's EUR7.4 billion ($8 billion)
acquisition of the Portuguese assets of Portugal Telecom, after
Altice agreed to sell its existing businesses in Portugal.
The deal, announced in November, was the latest acquisition for
Franco-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi's international cable and
telecommunications group. Altice, which previously had a small
presence in Portugal via operators Cabovisão and Oni, will become a
key competitor in the country, next to Vodafone Group PLC and
NOS.
The European Commission, the European Union's top antitrust
authority, said the deal as initially announced "could have led to
higher prices for clients" because Altice may "have faced
insufficient competitive constraint from the remaining players on
the market for fixed telecommunications" in Portugal.
To assuage those concerns, Altice agreed to sell its current
Portuguese businesses ONI and Cabovisão, the commission said in a
statement Monday.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU's antitrust chief, said she had
sought to "ensure that the merger will not lead to higher prices
and less competition for Portuguese consumers."
"The commitments offered by the parties address this concern,"
Ms. Vestager said.
Mr. Drahi, who started building Altice from scratch during the
1990s by investing in underperforming cable companies, has made
clear his ambition to expand the company in markets where it is
present and combine fixed with mobile assets. Altice also has
operations in Belgium and Israel.
Patricia Kowsmann in Lisbon contributed to this article.
Write to Tom Fairless at tom.fairless@wsj.com
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