Debt King Drahi Built a Cable Empire on Credit. Now What?
- Dealmaker has to prove he can manage sprawling operations
- Fixing French SFR unit key to rebuilding investor confidence
Photographer: Eric Piermont/AFP via Getty Images
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The best description of Patrick Drahi’s business model may be the one he gave last year in a talk at his alma mater. “I bought everything on credit,” he told students at French engineering school Polytechnique. “I didn’t take much risk. It’s the banks that lent everything.”
Indeed. In a frenzy of deals over the past four years, Drahi transformed a modest cable TV and phone group, Altice NV, into one of the world’s biggest media and telecoms companies. In the process, Altice ran up some $55 billion of debt, making it Europe’s largest junk-rated borrower.