LONDON - The French telecommunications company Orange has reached an agreement to sell its Dominican Republic operations to the Luxembourg cable and broadband provider Altice for $1.4 billion.
The deal strengthens Altice’s presence in the Caribbean, where it offers cable television and mobile phone services in Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana. In October, Altice announced that it was buying a controlling stake in the Dominican Republic cable and mobile operator Tricom.
Orange Dominicana had about 3.4 million subscribers at the end of September. Combined, Orange Dominicana and Tricom will have about 4 million subscribers.
The deal is subject to approval by Dominican authorities and will be submitted to Orange’s board of directors next month.
The sale is the latest in a wave of restructuring by European telecom companies as they look to consolidate or streamline their operations.
Vivendi announced plans earlier this week to spin off its mobile and telecom unit SFR after selling a 53 percent stake in its Moroccan business earlier this month for 4.2 billion euros, or about $5.7 billion.
Earlier this month, Deutsche Telekom announced a deal to sell a 70 percent stake in its online classified advertising business for €1.5 billion and PPF Group is selling a controlling stake in the Spanish telecom company, Telefónica, for €2.5 billion.
In September, the British telecom company Vodafone agreed to sell its 45 percent stake in Verizon Communications’ wireless unit in the United States for $130 billion, the largest deal so far this year. The American telecom giant AT&T is also considering making acquisitions in Europe as early as next year.
