Saudi Telecom wants to partner with Portuguese group to buy Altice Portugal

Saudi Telecom is committed to winning the race to purchase Altice Portugal.

To increase the chances of success, the Arab state company is looking for a Portuguese partner, Jornal Económico learned from a source linked to the process. Contacts have already been initiated with Portuguese business groups.

On the list of potential partners to form a consortium with Saudi Telecom, according to JE sources, is the Amorim group, chaired by Marta Amorim, and the Queiroz Pereira family. But an official source from the Amorim Group, when questioned, said that “the news of negotiations with Saudi Telecom is unfounded”.

Judging by these statements, the business appears to be of no interest to the group that has Corticeira Amorim, Amorim Luxury and Amorim Energia. There may also be contacts with the Queiroz Pereira family group that owns, among other companies, Semapa and Navigator, but a source from the group does not confirm this.

Saudi Telecom thus seeks to circumvent some competitive limitations that may arise in the eyes of European authorities, due to the fact that it is a Saudi state-owned company,
In Portugal, the Government has the possibility of intervening in the sale of Altice Portugal under Decree-Law nº 138/14 of 15 September, which establishes a regime for safeguarding strategic assets essential to guarantee public security.

In any case, the current Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, led by Miguel Pinto Luz, has not yet been contacted by representatives of Saudi Telecom, nor by Patrick Drahi’s Altice, owner of Altice Portugal, JE knows.

The previous Government had publicly admitted that it considered Altice Portugal a strategic asset, particularly in the area of ​​communications.

The then Secretary of State for Digitalization and Administrative Modernization, Mário Campolargo, considered the owner of MEO “a strategic asset with importance for national sovereignty”, having given the example of “the importance of submarine cables, antennas and satellites and also services emergency services, such as SIRESP”.

The sale of Altice Portugal requires authorization from several regulators, from Competition (including the European DG Comp), to telecommunications regulators, and the National Security Authority (ANS), because of submarine cables.

Saudi Telecom has been the most committed candidate to buy Altice Portugal, which owns MEO, and offered the highest price. The bank Morgan Stanley (financial consultancy) and the law firm PLMJ provide advice on this business.

Left out of the competitive process was the Iliad group, owned by French millionaire Xavier Niel, responsible for the Free operator in France. Iliad’s departure led the Altice group to extend the deadline for the submission of binding offers by Altice Portugal, without stipulating a limit. Because of this, Warburg Pincus was once again considered as a hypothesis in the race to purchase Altice Portugal, as reported by “Jornal de Negócios”. But so far there have been no major moves by the North American fund, which appeared in a consortium with Zeno Partners, with the support of António Horta Osório. There was even talk of the possibility that Horta Osório, given the withdrawal of the consortium led by Warburg, would start helping Saudi Telecom in the proposed purchase of the former Portugal Telecom, but this rumor has not been confirmed so far.

The process is in the due diligence phase. The investment banks Lazard and BNP Paribas were mandated to find buyers for the company that owns MEO, in September last year. The Altice Portugal sales process received dozens of expressions of interest and culminated in three candidates submitting binding proposals.
Altice Portugal did not comment.