An ad-hoc group of Altice France secured debtholders is holding a call Monday afternoon New York time with legal counsel to Gibson Dunn to discuss next steps, including bringing a financial advisor into the mix, said two sources familiar with the matter.

The group encompasses roughly USD 12bn worth of holders across the Altice France’s secured debt, noted one of the sources. The Luxembourg-headquartered telecom giant’s entire capital structure tanked last week, after management noted on a call that it will not use proceeds from asset sales to delever its capital structure.

Altice’s bonds and loans recovered Monday following the steep falls last week. The EUR 1.317bn 8% senior unsecured 2027 bonds rebounded around eight points today to 36.32-mid, according to IHS Markit. The EUR 1bn 5.875% senior secured 2027s are around five points higher at 81.73-mid and the USD 4.26bn SOFR+ 550bps August 2028 TLB rose by over three points to 81/79.83 versus 75.31/77.94 on Friday.

Altice last week announced it had entered into an exclusivity agreement to sell France-based media company Altice Media to shipping giant CMA CGM Group and Merit France for EUR 1.55bn in cash, as reported.

However, Altice France is targeting a net leverage of “well below” 4x before it would feel comfortable to contribute sale proceeds of its unrestricted assets back into the restricted group, management told investors on its 4Q23 earnings call on 20 March. They added that to achieve this, the company would require creditors’ participation in discounted transactions.

The news spurred a flurry of activity across the company’s massive capital structure. The company is reportedly talking to Lazard. Houlihan Lokey and Milbank held a call last Friday (22 March), when they urged creditors to band together to preserve value. They cited a recent example of DISH Network, a subsidiary of US-listed EchoStar, where creditors managed to push back against the exchange offers proposed by the company through signing a collaboration agreement, two additional sources familiar said.

Houlihan and White & Case are advising EchoStar as it looks to address upcoming debt maturities and boost liquidity. The telecom group controversially moved assets away from creditors before launching the failed exchange offers. Milbank and Lazard, meanwhile, are advising a group of DISH creditors who hold large positions across DISH secured and unsecured notes.

Calls to Altice and Gibson Dunn were not returned.

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