Gibson Dunn to Host Call on Dec. 5 for Altice International Co-Op Lenders to Discuss Options After Drop-Downs; Co-Op Reaches 87%

Following Altice International’s announcement of a controversial drop-down and new-money raise at the end of last week, the secured creditors’ legal advisor Gibson Dunn will be hosting a call on Dec. 5 to provide an update on the latest developments and discuss creditors’ options, sources said.

Altice International’s secured lenders, which are also advised by Houlihan Lokey, are led by a steering committee, or SteerCo, of 11 funds including Sona Asset Management, PGIM, Invesco, BlackRock, King Street Capital Management, Arini Capital Management, RBC BlueBay Asset Management and Fidelity Investments, sources said.

Around 80% of Altice International’s senior secured creditors signed a co-op agreement in April, in preparation for debt talks over the company’s 2027 maturities. The group has since risen to about 87% of senior holders, sources noted.

Meanwhile, holders of Altice International’s €675 million subordinated bonds due 2028 led by GoldenTree Asset Management are working with Jefferies and Milbank. Lazard is advising the company, according to sources.

The upcoming lender call comes after Altice International announced on Nov. 28 that it had moved Altice Caribbean outside of the restricted group, under the ownership of a direct subsidiary of Altice Group Lux Sarl, meaning that it is no longer consolidated within the group. The company also unrestricted Altice Portugal and raised €750 million in new money against it from a “related party.”

The company’s bonds took a dive following the announcement, with the senior secured bonds dropping between six and eight points across 2028 and 2029 maturities to the mid-60s, while the 2027 notes are currently quoted at 74.5. The company’s subordinated bonds have fallen more than 16 points from the day before the announcement and are indicated at 18, according to one source.

The meeting invite was extended to all of the lenders in the co-op and will allow them to hear options under consideration by the SteerCo and Gibson Dunn, according to sources.

As reported, both senior and subordinate creditors are considering next steps, including possible litigation against the company. The potential litigation might take several routes, including the option of seeking a change-of-control trigger as a result of the above-mentioned drop-downs.

To see Octus’ analysis of Altice International’s covenants following the announcement, click HERE.

The move is similar to what happened in March 2024 with Altice France, but on a far more aggressive scale. Back then, on the fourth-quarter 2023 earnings call, management shocked the market by announcing that “creditors participation in discounted transactions” was “required to achieve its new net leverage target of well below 4x.” At that time, management designated data center company UltraEdge and Altice Media as unrestricted subsidiaries.

As a result of what happened with Altice France, many creditors expected controlling shareholder Patrick Drahi to use Altice International’s loose covenants as a bargaining chip to negotiate haircuts in order to deleverage, while keeping control of the business. Nonetheless, the timing and size of the drop-down took the majority of creditors by surprise.

To put it into perspective, in the LTM period to Sept. 30, Portugal and the Dominican Republic – the assets being dropped down – together produced about 75% of the group’s revenues and 80% of the group’s adjusted EBITDA.

In the LTM to Sept. 30, 2025, total revenue generated from the remaining Israeli assets represented 25% of group revenue while about 20% of the group’s adjusted EBITDA came from Israel – however, we note that what remains behind in the restricted group after the Hot Mobile sale likely constitutes a lower proportion. The company does not report figures for Hot Mobile separately.

Drawing comparison with the recent case of Altice France, many sources see the controversial move as an aggressive starting point for Altice International’s upcoming talks with creditors, by resetting market expectations and placing the company in a stronger bargaining position.

On the other hand, some are less comforted by the similarity to the French counterpart, noting that France’s regulatory framework made it more difficult for Drahi to follow through with aggressive actions due to directors’ duties and clawback risks. Altice International’s Luxembourg incorporation, instead, removes the guardrails provided by the French system and could allow for more creditor-unfriendly actions, some sources suggested.

For how liability management exercise transactions may run in Luxembourg, see Octus’ legal analysis HERE.

Sources agree that Drahi will need to sell some of Altice International’s assets. While valuations vary widely, they expect Altice Portugal to be valued at around 7x, Dominican Republic around 4.5x and Israel’s mobile business at 6.5/7x.

Last week, Optimum Communications, formerly known as Altice USA, filed an antitrust suit in New York federal court accusing creditors of collusion by entering into a July 2024 cooperation agreement, which it defined as “a classic illegal cartel” under which “competing debt investors have agreed to lock Optimum out of the credit market unless Optimum offers terms the entire Cooperative deems acceptable.”

Following the drop-down announcement, Altice International announced an 8.7% slump in third- quarter EBITDA to €78 million, from €85 million in the third quarter of 2024, on a pro forma basis excluding Portugal and Dominican Republic. The drop came despite an 8.2% rise in revenues compared to last year, climbing to €266 million from €246 million, on a pro forma basis.

Octus calculates a 5.7x net leverage multiple based on more than €8.6 billion in net debt, about €3 billion of which matures in 2027. Based on results as of Sept. 30, 2025, and pro forma the latest debt raise of €750 million, the group has about €1.2 billion in liquidity.

Lazard, Gibson Dunn, BlueBay and Fidelity did not respond to Octus’ request for comment.