February 2 2024
Vivendi’s Canal+ has offered to buy the shares of South African pay-TV company MultiChoice Group that it doesn’t already own in a deal that values the business’s shares at R46bn. This is a whopping number for the battling MultiChoice. While MultiChoice’s SA dstv offering is under threat in SA from streaming companies, it continues to shine in the rest of Africa.
Canal+, which is MultiChoice’s biggest shareholder with a 31.7% stake, has offered R105 per share in cash for the rest of the business, the French media group said in a statement on Thursday February 1. The non-binding bid represents a 40% premium to the company’s last closing price.
Vivendi aims to combine its local Canal+ operations with MultiChoice, creating a group with nearly 50- million subscribers and the resources to invest more in local content and sports. Canal+ said the new group may ultimately seek to sell shares on the JSE. Canal is famous for screening mass TV content and reality TV.
“We are in a world where we are facing global competitors, most of them from America that have been smart at creating scale through the internet,” said Canal+ chair and CEO Maxime Saada in press release.
MultiChoice shares rose 24% to R93.16 by lunchtime in Johannesburg after earlier jumping as much as 27%, the biggest gain since its listing in 2019. Vivendi fell 1.4% in Paris.
MultiChoice was formed in 1985 and excelled because of its Superspot offering which is arguably the best sports channel offering in the world. The company, which was spun off from Naspers, owns Showmax, a streaming service.
alistair@propertyflash.co.za
