LONDON â€" The European cable and cellphone operator Altice announced on Tuesday that it planned to raise up to 750 million euros, or $1 billion, through an initial public offering on the NYSE Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam.
Altice, whose operations include cable businesses and mobile assets in several European countries and the Caribbean, is expected to use the money to reduce its 3.5 billion euros of outstanding debt, which the company held as of the end of the third quarter of 2013, the latest figures available.
The listing will take place by early February, and is an effort to take advantage of investors’ growing appetite for the European telecommunications sector.
Over the last 18 months, there has been a round of deals for mobile and cable assets, as European giants like Vodafone and international rivals like América Móvil maneuver to take advantage of an expected push for consolidation.
Altice, an investment vehicle founded by the Israeli-French businessman Patrick Drahi in 2002, has expanded its operations through a decade of acquisitions. That includes the $1.4 billion deal in November for the Dominican Republic mobile and Internet assets of the French telecommunications company Orange.
In an investor presentation on Tuesday, the Luxembourg-based company said it had identified up to 10 new potential opportunities for acquisitions. Altice is expected to use the I.P.O. to reduce its debt levels, which could allow the cable operator to access new capital and potentially bid for new assets.
“This is the right time for Altice to list,†Mr. Drahi, Altice’s executive chairman, said in a statement on Tuesday. As part of the deal, Mr. Drahi is also expected to sell part of his own stake in Altice to ensure that there is a so-called free float of shares of around 25 percent.
The European privately held cable operator said it generated pretax profit of around 1.1 billion euros for the nine months through Sept. 30, and had about 14 million customers in that period, according to Altice’s website.
The company also owns a 40 percent stake in the French cable operator Numericable, which raised around $1 billion through its own initial public offering in early November.
A number of large telecommunications companies are currently looking at potential deals in Europe.
John C. Malone’s Liberty Global is currently negotiating to buy the remaining 70 percent stake in the Dutch cable operator Ziggo it does not own in a deal that could value the firm at around $9 billion. Liberty Global also acquired the British cable company Virgin Media for around $16 billion last year.
Analysts say other acquisitions are likely to follow as cellphone operators look to expand their operations into new sectors like cable and fixed-line offerings. Cable companies are also adding mobile assets to their operations to provide a combination of cellphone, fixed-line, cable and broadband services.
Attention has focused on SFR, the mobile and Internet unit of the French conglomerate Vivendi, which has announced plans to spin off the business. Others European telecommunications firms, including Telecom Italia, have announced plans to sell off assets, partly in a bid to reduce their high debt levels.
Global companies, including the American giant AT&T, are also rumored to be looking for deals in Europe’s telecommunications sector.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are coordinating Altice’s I.P.O.
