7 Things You Should Know About Altice's IPO

Broadband communications and video services provider Altice USA ATUS debuted on Wall Street Thursday. The company offered 63.94 million shares of its Class A common stock at a price of $30 per share after setting the price range between $27 and $31. The offering raised $1.9 billion in gross proceeds.

7 Things To Know

Here are seven things an investor should know about this newbie on the Street:

1. Altice's IPO comes close on heels of another offering by cable company WideOpenWest Inc WOW, which marked the first cable company IPO in five years, according to Reuters. WideOpenWest had to set the pricing of the IPO below the targeted range.
2. Of the 63.94 million shares offered to the public, 12.07 million shares are offered by the Altice USA, the remaining 51.87 million by selling shareholders — the proceeds of which would not go to the company.
3. The company's shares are listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol ATUS.
4. The S-1 filing revealed that the company generated revenues of $2.31 billion for the first quarter of 2017, up 1.4 percent year over year, and adjusted EBITDA of $941.74 million, 26.6 percent growth. The company made a loss of $76.43 million versus $190.08 million in the first quarter of 2016.
5. Altice USA is a majority-owned and controlled U.S. subsidiary of ALTICE NV EUR0.01 (COMMON SHARES A) ALLVF, a multinational cable, fiber, telecommunications, content, media and advertising company founded by French billionaire Patrick Drahi. The Reuters report suggested that Draghi could use the publicly traded shares of the U.S. company as currency for funding future acquisitions. Pursuant to the offering, Draghi is set to own 70.3 percent of the outstanding shares and 98.3 percent of the voting rights in the company, thanks to a separate class of shares called Class B shares, each of which is entitled to 25 votes compared to 1 for Class A shares, which are being currently offered.
6. Altice USA was formed by combining Cablevision Systems Corporation and Suddenlink Communications.
7. Altice's IPO markets the biggest telecom IPO in 17 years. "The IPO of cable company Altice USA raised more money than any other U.S.-listed telecom since the year 2000, an encouraging sign for the beleaguered sector," said MarketWatch.
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