French billionaire takes over Sotheby’s

● Sotheby’s shareholders this week approved a $2.7bn (about R4bn) sale to French billionaire Patrick Drahi.

Drahi, a telecoms tycoon and art collector, agreed to acquire Sotheby’s for $57 per share, a 61% premium to the share price, according to the Financial Times.

The deal will combine the 275-year-old Sotheby’s with a company controlled by Drahi, who surprisingly bid for the New York-based firm in June. Drahi is worth $10.7bn, according to the Bloomberg billionaires index.

Drahi will finance the acquisition with a mix of debt and equity.

The $3.7bn enterprise value of the deal includes about $1bn of Sotheby’s debt.