A statement from Gestion Audem, the Audet family holding company, said it “has been made aware of the unsolicited, non-binding proposal”, and the family said it “unanimously reiterated that they are not interested in selling their shares”.
Louis Audet, president of Gestion Audem, said: “The family takes pride in its stewardship role in both companies, offering high-quality services to its customers, enriching the communities in which they operate and creating superior returns for shareholders through sound growth strategies.”
Gestion Audem holds 69% of voting rights of Cogeco, which controls 82.9% of voting rights of Cogeco Communications.
New York Stock Exchange-quoted Altice USA, which split from Altice Europe in 2018, proposed the deal last week, under which it would acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of Cogeco. Patrick Drahi (pictured) is the biggest shareholder in both Altice USA and Altice Europe.
If the deal were complete, Altice USA would sell Cogeco’s Canadian assets to Canada’s Rogers Communications, holding on to the US assets, Massachusetts-based Atlantic Broadband. This is the eighth or ninth – according to different sources – largest cable operator in the US. It has operations in 11 states, from New Hampshire to Florida.
Cogeco has bought the company in 2012 for $1.36 billion and later merged it with MetroCast.
Altice USA’s CEO, Dexter Goei, said last week: “We greatly respect and appreciate the legacy the Audet family has created with Cogeco, building an iconic company across Canada and the US that is driven by superior customer service and continuous investments in technology.”
He added: “We are pleased to present this very attractive offer for Cogeco, and are confident that Mr Audet and the Cogeco boards will act in the best interest of all shareholders and fairly evaluate this offer. We look forward to the opportunity to extend Altice USA’s high-quality broadband, video, mobile, and news offerings to more than 1.1 million additional homes and businesses.”
Altice created its presence in the US by buying two cable operations, Suddenlink in 2015 and Optimum in 2016. Since the Altice USA split from Altice Europe it bought New Jersey-based Service Electric Cable TV this year.
