The communication company Altice USA Loses about a quarter of its market value in Wall Street trading, after publishing financial reports. The company is under the control of the businessman Patrick Darhyalso the owner of the Israeli Hot, and he owns about half of the shares of Altis USA and about 95% of the voting rights in it, and serves as the chairman of the board of directors.
The reports published yesterday after the end of trading were weak and indicated a decrease in all the key parameters: revenues decreased by 7% compared to the corresponding quarter to approximately 2.4 billion dollars, lower than the analysts’ forecasts, and the net profit attributed to the unit holders was 85 million dollars, compared to 267 million dollars in the corresponding quarter . The adjusted EBITDA decreased by 18% to 954 million dollars and the flow from current activities amounted to 629 million dollars, compared to 698 million dollars in the corresponding quarter. The free flow, which reached 136 million dollars, was 65% lower compared to the corresponding quarter.
Year-to-date, the company’s revenue fell 3.8% to about $7.3 billion, net profit attributable to shareholders shrank 47.5% to $388 million and EBITDA fell 11.7% to just under $3 billion. On the other hand, capital expenditures (CAPEX) increased by 62% to approximately 1.37 billion dollars. The company reiterates its forecast for annual CAPEX of $1.7-1.8 billion, as it says it continues to accelerate its investments in growth initiatives.
Altis USA also reported a decline in the number of subscribers, both households and businesses.
Investors are apparently also bothered by the extent of Altice’s debt, which amounts to $24 billion (net debt of $24 billion), a debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 6 that the company expects to reduce later to 4.5-5.
Altis USA was issued in New York in 2017 at a value of 22 billion dollars. Today it is worth about 2.2 billion dollars.