Patrick Drahi has a weak hand in US creditor clash
OPTU•Creditors including Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital sued Optimum Communications and Patrick Drahi over alleged transfers of cable assets beyond lenders’ reach. Optimum has about $26 billion of debt, including roughly $6 billion maturing next year, and says the transfers complied with its debt agreements and the law.
1. Creditors sue over transfers
A group of creditors filed a lawsuit in New York on September 28 against Drahi and other Optimum insiders. The filing alleges that valuable cable assets were moved outside lenders’ collateral when the company was insolvent; creditors want a court to unwind the transfers. Optimum disputes the illegality of the transfers and says its actions complied with its debt agreements and applicable law.
2. Debt and business pressures
About $6 billion of Optimum’s roughly $26 billion in debt matures next year. The company lost more than 97,000 residential broadband customers in the first half of 2026, while analysts polled by Visible Alpha expect EBITDA of just under $3.2 billion this year, down from more than $4.4 billion in 2021. Optimum acknowledged in June that it lacked the resources to repay its 2027 maturities without a restructuring or capital injection.
3. Restructuring remains uncertain
Creditors say Optimum’s former CEO proposed a debt reduction of $8 billion or more, and that assets representing about two-thirds of EBITDA were later moved beyond creditors’ reach and pledged for new loans. Bondholders have resisted the moves and challenged the transfers. A voluntary restructuring is still possible, but the article says creditors may seek to play hardball, while bankruptcy could put control in a court’s hands.
