Altice Europe: Oddo a buyer, with very aggressive guidelines

(CercleFinance.com) - Appreciating the group's very aggressive guidelines and a recovery in topline performance - which more than offsets Q4 EBITDA that is 2% lower - an analyst at Oddo BHF today maintains his "buy" rating on the Altice Europe stock, with the group having just published its FY 2018 results.


And this is despite the group's sales falling 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Note that the broker forecast performance to be worse, expecting sales to fall by 3%.

Oddo BHF says that it (previously) returned to a buy rating on Altice to play the string of deals to accelerate deleveraging. The group's focus on deleveraging and a leverage guidance of 4.25x within 24 months reinforces this point. However, the broker was not very hopeful in terms of operating profit. The publication confirmed its fears about Q4, with profitability being in free-fall, although the group's aggressive comments and the improvement of basic effects, coupled with the volume effect from subscriber gains should lead to a better organic than expected by the market.

Expecting the share to rise following this annual publication, the broker confirms its target price of 3 euros, suggesting upside potential of around 62%.



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