European telecoms group Altice will become a major force in the lucrative US cable market after it agreed to buy fourth largest operator Cablevision for a mix of cash and shares in a deal worth $17.7 billion including debt.

The move is the latest foray by French-Israeli billionaire and Altice founder Patrick Drahi, who built a telecoms and cable empire in recent years via debt-fuelled acquisitions in France, Portugal and Israel.

Mr Drahi entered the US in May by buying small regional cable group Suddenlink for $9.1 billion and had declared he would make more acquisitions so as eventually to earn half of Altice’s revenue there.

In talks that began in June, Mr Drahi managed to convince Charles Dolan, the patriarch of the Irish-American family that owns Cablevision, to part with the asset it had long said it would not sell.

Altice will pay $34.90 in cash per share, a 22 per cent premium to Wednesday’s closing price of $28.54, giving Cablevision an equity value of $10 billion.

To finance the deal Altice will raise $8.6 billion in new debt mostly at Cablevision and none at its European holding, which is already highly leveraged.

It will also raise $3.3 billion in equity, 70 per cent by issuing shares at Altice and 30 per cent from private equity fund BC Partners and Canadian investment fund CPP Investment Board, backers of Suddenlink.

Altice, whose corporate headquarters is in the Netherlands, said it would issue Class A shares, which have fewer voting rights than the B shares held largely by Mr Drahi.

Altice created the dual-class structure in June so as to allow it to do more deals in shares without Mr Drahi losing control.

Altice is expected to apply its cost-cutting zeal to generate $900 million in synergies a year at Cablevision, which has 3.1 million customers in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.– (Reuters)