Cable One said it has “upsized” its previously reported public offering of additional stock, now planning to raise about $425 million in shares to help pay off debt and for other corporate purposes, including funding possible future acquisitions.

In a press release, Cable One said it would offer 250,000 shares of its common stock at $1,700 each, for gross proceeds of about $425 million. It had earlier planned to raise about $400 million from the offering. The company added that it has granted the underwriters of the offering the option for 30 days to purchase an additional 37,500 shares at the offering price (raising another $63 million), less the underwriting discount.

Cable One shares have been a top performer in the cable sector, rising about 80% in 2019. The shares are up about 30% so far this year and were priced at $1,802 each (down $13 or 0.7%) in early trading Thursday.

Cable One said in a press release that the net proceeds from the offering will be about $409.1 million, or $470.4 million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares.

J.P. Morgan Securities, BofA Securities and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as lead book-running managers for the offering. Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse Securities (USA), SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and TD Securities (USA) are also acting as book-running managers. Co-managers are BMO Capital Markets, BTIG, Citizens Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, Fifth Third Securities, MUFG Securities Americas, B. Riley FBR, Cowen and Company, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Raymond James & Associates and Stephens.

Altice USA priced its initial public offering at $30 per share on Wednesday night, at the higher end of the expected range of $27 to $31 each.

Altice USA first announced its IPO intentions in April. The company, which has about 4.9 million residential and business customers in 21 states, had said earlier this month that it expected to price its offering at $27 to $31 per share.

Altice USA also increased the number of shares it plans to offer to 63.9 million shares from 46.6 million. At that price and number of shares, the offering will raise about $1.9 billion.

The bulk of the offering proceeds will go to two selling shareholders – BC Partners and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) – who together have said they would sell about 51 million shares. Altice USA expects to sell 12.1 million shares.

Altice USA will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ATUS” on Thursday (June 22).

Altice is the second cable IPO this year. In May, WideOpenWest went public at $17 per share, well below its expected range of $20 to $22 per share. 

While Altice USA is larger – WOW has about 474,000 video customers and is in smaller markets – part of the allure of Altice stock is its potential use as a deal currency. While Altice USA has said it will focus on organic growth in the near term, the company has made no bones about its desire to grow through acquisition. With a solid U.S.-based deal currency, that becomes a more attractive option for potential targets.

Altice USA’s parent, European telecom company Altice N.V., will remain in control of the company after the offering is complete. According to Altice USA, Altice N.V. will own 70.3% of Altice USA's issued and outstanding common stock, which will represent 98.3% of the voting power of Altice USA's outstanding common stock.

J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering and representatives of the underwriters, together with BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank Securities and RBC Capital Markets as additional joint bookrunning managers.