Canal+ raises MultiChoice holding to 41.6%
Canal+ now owns 41.6% of MultiChoice as the French media group continues to buy shares, underlining its intention to take control of Africa’s largest pay TV company.
The company said in a statement on Thursday that it had acquired a further 3.37-million MultiChoice shares in on- and off-market transactions.
The transactions had been disclosed to SA’s Takeover Regulation Panel.
The French broadcast group has been aggressively buying up shares for almost four years after it started building its stake with an initial purchase of 6.5% in early October 2020.
At the beginning of February, Canal+ made an offer to buy the rest of the company at R105 a share, or just more than R31bn, in what would have been the biggest merger & acquisition deal so far in SA in 2024.
The DStv owner snubbed the offer as too low for the business and its prospects, even though it is at the top end of the target price range that analysts and brokers have for the stock. Canal+ then raised its offer to R125 a share on March 5, valuing the deal at about R37bn.
A day later, Canal+’s stake had grown to 35.01%, triggering a mandatory offer, according to rules set by the Takeover Regulation Panel.
On April 8, Canal+ and MultiChoice said they had entered into a co-operation agreement regarding the proposed mandatory offer.
Earlier this week Imtiaz Patel stepped down as chair of MultiChoice. This came almost three weeks after the group said Patel would remain as chair until the conclusion of the Canal+ transaction.
The group said the proposed transaction “has now shifted to the next phase”, given these developments and the constituting of an independent board to assess the deal.
Therefore “the board and Mr Patel have agreed that now would be an appropriate time for Mr [Elias] Masilela, the current deputy chair, to be appointed as chair as planned and for Mr Patel to step down from the board.”
Patel will continue his involvement with the group as a consultant.
When Canal+, the pay-TV subsidiary of media conglomerate Vivendi, first took a position in MultiChoice, it said it was a long-term financial investment and demonstrated its confidence in the prospects of the company and of the African continent, its largest market outside its home market.
A few years later, Canal+ pitched the transaction as an opportunity to create an African media business powerhouse with operations in key markets on the continent, from SA and Nigeria to Senegal and Cameroon.
Other large MultiChoice shareholders include the Public Investment Corporation, M&G and Allan Gray.