Franco-Moroccan telecoms tycoon, founder of Altice. A child of Morocco and an alumnus of Polytechnique, the engineering school that manufactures France's elite. In 1999 he began working for John Malone, an American cable tycoon, whose cost-cutting, debt-loving ways he later adopted.
Drahi started Altice a few years after working for Malone. During a furious acquisition streak Altice's debt grew from €2.2bn in 2013 to €50bn in 2017, a period when interest rates were low and investors were desperate to lend. Covenants in lending documents were loosened or disappeared altogether.
Drahi's approach to borrowing is singularly ruthless: borrow as much as possible, then squeeze the lenders. He uses weak covenants to declare subsidiaries "unrestricted" and beyond the reach of creditors. At Altice France he cut lenders from €24bn to €17bn while retaining control; at Altice International he isolated Portugal and the Dominican Republic from creditors, leaving them exposed only to €300m of profits from the Israeli subsidiary—a leverage ratio of 27. He also sued lenders to the American arm for signing a co-operation agreement, arguing it violates antitrust laws.
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