Altice, a Luxembourg-based company, announced on Wednesday, 27 November that it is finalizing an agreement with Grupo Leon Jimenes to join as local partners on its telecom investments in the Dominican Republic, including Orange Dominicana and Tricom. The announcement of the agreement with Leon Jimenes (former owners of Presidente beer) follows the announcement by Altice that it has reached an agreement with Orange to purchase 100% of Orange Dominicana. Orange Dominicana is a mobile operator with 3.4 million subscribers (mobile, Internet, TV and fixed voice services as of September 2013. The purchase is for approximately US$1.4 billion (EUR1.1 billion). It includes the continued use of the Orange brand by Orange Dominicana within a defined framework.
The purchase follows the company’s earlier announcement of the acquisition of leading cable operator Tricom. Altice says that the new purchase “fits perfectly with Altice’s strategy of combining both fixed and mobile assets in order to offer quadruple-play services over state-of-the-art communication networks.” It adds that with Orange Dominicana and Tricom having a combined total subscriber base of approximately four million, Altice will be in a stronger position to accelerate the upgrade and deployment of nationwide networks which can provide attractive television, high-speed broadband and telephony services over both fixed and mobile networks.
Altice says the purchase strengthens its presence in the Caribbean where it already offers pay-TV, high-speed broadband and mobile services in Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guyana.
Altice is a Luxembourg based company, founded by telecom entrepreneur Patrick Drahi. Altice and its affiliates currently regroup and operate cable, mobile, DSL and datacentre companies in France, Israel, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Portugal and Switzerland, servicing both residential and professional customers.
Orange Dominicana was established in 2000 and became one of the leading mobile operators in the Dominican Republic. The company posted revenue of RD$22.8 billion (US$581 million / EUR451 million) in 2012 and had a customer base of 3.4 million at the end of September 2013. The company employs approximately 1,400 people.
ITC columnist of Diario Libre, Hiddekel Morrison estimates the merge of Tricom and Orange will result in a company starting out with 41% of the telecom market. He alerts the country could gain or lose from the oligopoly that would be created between the new company and market leader America Movil’s Claro at a time when consumers have been affected by declining Internet and mobile service quality problems.
www.altice.net/files/Altice_Press_Release_27.11.13.pdf