The Carlyle Group Announces Closing of €1.1 billion Equity Investment in Numericable and Completel

Paris – Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced that it has completed its €1.1 billion equity investment in telecommunications companies Numericable and Completel, acquiring a 37.8% stake from existing shareholders Altice and Cinven, at an aggregate enterprise value of €6.5 billion. The equity investment is the largest ever made by a single private equity firm in France.

Benoît Colas, Managing Director, The Carlyle Group said, "We are delighted to have completed a major investment in Numericable and Completel, two companies with excellent growth opportunities based upon the superior quality of their fiber networks. Carlyle’s financial strength and depth of experience, gained from numerous investments including Casema, Com Hem, UPC Sweden and Bredbandsbolaget in Europe will enable us to be strong partner to management and existing shareholders Altice and Cinven in progressing the companies’ development.”

Numericable operates the leading alternative high speed network in France, covering close to 10 million households and providing high definition television, video on demand, very high speed internet and telephony services. Numericable is the first operator to have massively deployed its own fiber network in France. This unique fiber network already passes over 2 million households and will be extended to 8 million households by 2010. Completel offers differentiated services to corporate customers using the largest alternative metropolitan fiber access network and the third largest DSL network in France.

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