Drahi ruffled feathers when he tried, in vain, to push for further consolidation in France and made a bid to acquire Bouygues, a smaller rival to Numericable-SFR, for about $11.4 billion — deemed a generous offer — in June. Drahi was immediately hammered with harsh criticism in France, flagged by the French economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, and anti-trust authorities, and derailed by French media before being turned down by Bouygues’ owner Martin Bouygues in a very public way. Macron said back then that “All the synergies that could justify such a price are in fact about killing jobs.” Macron also suggested that Altice’s debt-fueled acquisitions model could be problematic.
The primary reproach that has been made against Drahi in France lies in his acquisition strategy, which involves deploying massive debt. Julian Watson, analyst at IHS, said Altice has a net debt of 4.4 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), which is more than twice the leverage ratio of Orange and Vodafone.