Altice founder speaks of ‘shock’ over criminal investigation into Portuguese operation

Patrick Drahi, founder of the Altice group, which owns Meo (Portugal’s leading telecommunications brand) has talked for the first time today about his “shock and a great disappointment” over the investigation involving Altice Portugal, and his former business partner Armando Pereira – stressing that if the allegations are true, he will feel “betrayed and deceived” by all those involved. Armando Pereira did not jointly found Altice with billionaire Drahi (as has been reported in the past). He only ever held a minority shareholding, says the billionaire, who holds French, Israeli and Portuguese nationality. But Mr Drahi is nonetheless clearly deeply upset by the situation, as if the allegations are true, it will mean he was deceived by one of his group’s ‘oldest colleagues’. It should be said that Armando Pereira refutes the case against him.