When will Nathan Drahi from Sotheby’s get out of Hong Kong? Patrick Drahi’s Extremely Capitalistic Way of Art Dealing And Speculating With Sotheby’s
As a veteran artist in Japan, with quite idealistic opinions, it makes more and more difficult for me to agree with the actual tendencies of the global art world.
Two examples:
1) I am against the so-called “NFT works” by digital illustrators, like Beeple, to be recognised as art works, put into the canon of art history.
Check:
#USABS U.S. ARTY BULL SHIT. NFTデジタル・アーティスト ビープル：「美術史の流れを変えたい」や「悪役である」というメリット
#USABS。NFT Digital Artist Beeple: “I want to change the course of art history” and the merit of “being the bad guy”
https://art-culture.world/articles/nft-beeple-digital-artist-ビープル/
2) Every auctioneer applauded when Christie’s and Sotheby’s became private enterprises, so a more long-term strategy, not quarterly results, would benefit everyone involved.
At the moment, Christie’s Pinault’s engagements as a collector should be applauded. Showing his marvellous collection in different places around Europe is a win-win situation for all of us art lovers.
Check this out:
フランソワ・ピノーの三番目の刺激的な現代美術館、再建築 by 安藤忠雄
Exciting 3rd Contemporary Art Museum for François Pinault, rebuild by ANDO Tadao
https://art-culture.world/articles/francois-pinault-art-museum/
原口典之と関根伸夫のアート実践を考える
Thoughts on the artistic practice of HARAGUCHI Noriyuki and SEKINE Nobuo
https://art-culture.world/articles/haraguchi-noriyuki-sekine-nobuo-原口典之-関根伸夫/
現代美術コレクター、兼オークションハウス・クリスティーズ社長フランソワ・ピノー氏のコレクション展 in モナコ公国
Contemporary Art Collector, Christie’s Auction House Owner François Pinault Shows His Collection In The Principality of Monaco
https://art-culture.world/articles/pinault-collection-ピノー・コレクション/
However, Patrick Drahi demonstrated that he doesn’t like art. What a shame. A disaster for the Asian art market, too, with his amateurish, spoilt son Nathan Drahi, who is the wrong person in Hong Kong’s Sotheby’s.
Check this out:
Sotheby’s Harsh Reshuffle: After Amy Cappellazzo and Kevin Ching, Next Prominent Figure TERASE Yuki Bites the Dust
サザビーズのコンテンポラリーアート部門アジア地区部長・寺瀬由紀氏を巡って
https://art-culture.world/articles/terase-yuki-寺瀬由紀/
Next One @ Sotheby’s: Hugely Popular Amy Cappellazzo Bites the Dust
What will happen @ Sotheby’s Japan?
https://art-culture.world/articles/amy-cappellazzo/
アジアのアートマーケットの中心的人物：26歳のネイサン ドライ氏、新CEO サザビーズアジア (サザビーズのオーナー パトリック・ドライの息子）
Key Person of Asia’s Art Market: 26 Years Old Nathan Drahi, New CEO Sotheby’s Asia (Son of Sotheby’s Owner Patrick Drahi)
https://art-culture.world/articles/key-person-of-asia-art-market/
French-Israeli telecoms billionaire Patrick Drahi has selected Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to pursue the IPO for around 5 billion US Dollars.
Check:
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/01/13/sothebys-selects-banks-initial-public-offering-five-billion
Means, Drahi would make a profit of around 1.3 billion US Dollars in just 3 years. Let’s say it bluntly: we artists feel annoyed, we’re just being fucked by the Drahi’s family.
I really hope, that young and unsympathetic Nathan Drahi will part from Hong Kong as soon as possible.
Up-date 2022/12/8:
Sotheby’s Chairman Patti Wong, Who Ushered House’s Growth in Asia, To Depart
ANGELICA VILLA, December 7, 2022
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/sothebys-international-chairman-patti-wong-to-depart-1234649457/
Up-date 2023/8/11
Billionaire Drahi vows speedy asset sales to cut debt at Altice
August 8, 2023
Summary
– Altice France pledges to do “whatever it takes” to cut debt
– Mentions sale of non-core assets, such as data centres
– Aims to raise about 3 billion euros – Drahi
– Partnerships, cash from other businesses among options – Drahi
PARIS, Aug 8 – French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi vowed on Tuesday to slash debts at Altice France, home to the country’s second-biggest telecoms operator, by selling assets within a year.
Drahi, under pressure after his right-hand man was arrested over allegations of corruption, is striving to boost creditors’ confidence in the financial reliability of his sprawling media-to-cable empire, whose combined debts total $60 billion.
At Altice France, one the three separate entities composing the Altice group, falling sales and core operating profits in the second quarter have added to the concerns, with net debt rising close to 24 billion euros ($26 billion).
Assets will be sold within Altice France or outside France to repay debt, Drahi told investors on a conference call.
“(The aims is) to raise, one way or another, 3 billion (euros) of equity, plus or minus,” Drahi said.
“We have lots of options: one, is asset disposals, bringing cash; two, lot of people are calling to be partners with us; and three, bringing cash from our other businesses,” Drahi added, as analysts pressed him to provide details on the deleveraging plan.
Altice France’s net leverage ratio at end of June was 6.3 times its yearly core operating profits.
There are active discussions for the potential sale of Altice France’s date centres, senior adviser Dennis Okhuijsen said on the same call, adding he was confident about giving an update on potential sales during third quarter results.
In its second quarter earnings presentation on Tuesday, Altice France, home to France’s second-biggest telecoms firm SFR, said it would do “whatever it takes” to reduce leverage.
Altice France’s net debt was close to 24 billion euros at the end of June, up from 23.6 billion at end of March, the group said.
It posted a 5.7% fall in core operating profits in the second quarter. Total earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to 1.02 billion euros from 1.08 billion euros a year earlier. Total revenues fell by 2.6% to 2.77 billion euros.
Drahi told investors on Monday he felt “shocked” and “betrayed” by an ongoing corruption probe at its Portuguese unit Altice Portugal
Altice’s co-founder Armando Pereira was placed under house arrest in Portugal last month while an investigation is conducted. Pereira has denied any wrongdoing.
($1 = 0.9141 euros)
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/billionaire-drahi-vows-speedy-asset-sales-cut-debt-altice-2023-08-08/
Factbox: A breakdown of Patrick Drahi’s $60 billion debt at Altice
August 8, 2023
PARIS, Aug 8 – French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi is facing renewed questions over the $60 billion pile of debt that allowed him to build his media and telecoms empire, after a corruption probe targeting his most trusted lieutenant shook his Altice group.
Spread across three separate entities, all controlled by Drahi, parts of the debt will soon have to be refinanced and maturities extended in the context of rising interest rates.
The debt burden is distributed as follows:
ALTICE INTERNATIONAL: net debt of 8.6 billion euros ($9.45 billion) at end of June.
* The smallest of the three Altice group entities is home to Portugal’s biggest telecoms firm and has a net leverage ratio of 4.8 times core operating profits.
* The unit is at the centre of a corruption probe in Portugal which led to right-hand man and Altice co-founder Armando Pereira being placed under house arrest last month.
* Altice International faces large maturities starting in 2025 and amounting to 2.13 billion euros in 2027 alone.
* Moody’s, which cut Altice International’s long-term debt rating to B3 from B2 in June, said last month that the probe created “uncertainty that is likely to affect investors’ confidence” as the group faces close to 800 million euros of debt repayment in 2025.
* S&P revised its outlook on the entity from negative to stable in April after Altice International posted “solid” growth in sales and core operating profits.
ALTICE FRANCE: net debt of 23.9 billion euros ($26.17 billion) at end of June.
* Home to France’s second-biggest telecoms firm SFR, Altice France’s debt reflects net leverage of 6.3 times the entity’s yearly core operating profits.
* The next sizable repayment is due in 2025, with 1.64 billion euros worth of secured bonds and secured loans.
* The biggest maturities are due from 2027, starting with 5.4 billion euros of repayments and peaking at 9 billion euros the year after.
* S&P and Moody’s both recently downgraded Altice France’s long-term debt rating, respectively to B- and B3 within the speculative range, citing the higher cost of refinancing in a context of rising interest rates and a weaker than expected operating performance.
ALTICE USA: consolidated net debt of $24.5 billion at end of June
* The New York-listed Altice entity has the highest net leverage ratio of the three, at 6.8 times its core operating profits at end of June.
* The next sizable maturity is due in 2025 with $1.6 billion worth of debt to be repaid then, before the $6 billion and $5.4 billion of repayments due in 2027 and 2028 respectively.
* S&P downgraded Altice USA’s long-term debt rating three times in less than a year, lastly to B from B+ in March. The credit rating firm warned it could lower the rating further if the net leverage ratio rose above 7 times core operating profits or if free operating cash flow turned negative.
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/breakdown-patrick-drahis-60-billion-debt-altice-2023-08-08/
up-date 2024/3/5
What’s Another $25 Billion on $100 Billion of Debt?
A potential deal between Charter and Altice USA would create a highly leveraged cable player. But the alternatives for both firms could be worse.
March 5, 2024
An ambitious deal may be brewing in the US cable industry, creating a behemoth carrying nearly $125 billion of debt. If Spectrum Internet owner Charter Communications Inc. wants to formalize a takeover of billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice USA Inc., it needs to be sure the benefits are worth the considerable financial stretch. The dilemma is that passing on a transaction carries risks of a different kind.
Charter’s stock and bond investors reacted nervously last month when Bloomberg News reported that management was weighing an offer for the US slice of Drahi’s telecoms empire. The company already carries nearly $100 billion of net debt. Its main shareholder is Liberty Broadband Corp., a vehicle of cable tycoon John Malone, himself no stranger to leverage.
more @
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-03-05/drahi-s-altice-and-charter-cable-deal-may-be-worth-the-debt?
2024/4/10 up-date:
Financial engineering to dig into the pocket change and reduce debt cost!
Sotheby’s, the auction house owned by telecom billionaire Patrick Drahi, plans to borrow about $500 million through bonds backed by personal loans made to art collectors
By Charles E Williams and Carmen Arroyo
Bloomberg, April 9, 2024
Sotheby’s Plans $500 Million Bond Sale Secured by Art, Collectibles
– Barclays may start premarketing process as soon as Wednesday
– More issuers have been pursuing niche types of securitizations
Sotheby’s, the auction house owned by telecom billionaire Patrick Drahi, plans to borrow about $500 million through bonds backed by personal loans made to art collectors.
Barclays Plc is the sole structuring agent of the asset-backed security and may start premarketing the deal as soon as Wednesday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. BNP Paribas SA and Morgan Stanley are also joint leads on the transaction, according to a company filing.
more @
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-09/patrick-drahi-s-auction-house-sotheby-s-plans-securitized-bond-sale
Billionaire Drahi Leaves Creditors Flummoxed With His ‘Bully-Boy’ Moves
Drahi risks burning bridges with creditors, who over decades bankrolled his debt-fueled empire-building, creating one of Europe’s most leveraged companies.
By Benoit Berthelot and Irene Garcia Perez
Bloomberg, April 10, 2024
Patrick Drahi was uncharacteristically chatty on that mild March day at the headquarters of his flagship company Altice France in the south of Paris. The tycoon had just agreed to sell his media operations to fellow French billionaire Rodolphe Saadé for €1.55 billion ($1.68 billion), and was bidding adieu to managers and anchors of the news channel BFMTV.
Over bite-sized appetizers and sparkling water in a bright, glass meeting room overlooking a terrace, he told them he decided in July to cash in on the news channel, after Altice co-founder Armando Pereira was arrested in Portugal for alleged corruption. “When you have an apartment, and you realize the bathroom is worth more than the whole apartment, what do you do?” Drahi asked. He went on say that he’s been thinking about his succession and decided to start selling chunks of his empire, including the French media business, because his four kids told him they want to invest in other areas, according to people who were present but didn’t want to be identified describing a private event.