French media company Canal+, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Vivendi SE, has made a new buyout offer fully acquire MultiChoice, in a deal that would value the South African media company at $2.9bn.
- •Canal+ first made an offer for MultiChoice in February 2024, offering a 40 percent premium on the share price.
- •MultiChoice’s board declined, saying that it ‘significantly undervalued’ the company.
- •At a valuation of R125 per share, the new offer is $400mn more than the February offer, and 66.66% higher than the closing price before Canal+’s first offer.
“A combined group would be better positioned to address key structural challenges and opportunities resulting from the progressive digitalisation and globalisation of the media and entertainment sector,” the two companies said in a joint statement on April 8th.
As Canal+ is already the biggest shareholder in MultiChoice, the new deal values the stake it does not already own at R35billion ($1.9bn), according to calculations by Reuters. The French company has been systematically shoring its stake since it first acquired a 30% stake in February 2023. It crossed the 35% threshold required to trigger a mandatory offer to buy out the other shareholders, and now owns 36.6% of the company.
“The complementary geographies, considerable scale, and strengthened capabilities achieved by the combination of these two great companies will ensure that Africa can tell her own stories on her own terms both locally and globally,” Maxime Saada, Canal+’s Chairman and CEO said.
Canal+ Next Steps
Canal+ faces several hurdles in its likely acquisition of the South African media company. Among them is that South African broadcast rules place significant limits on foreign ownership of broadcast licenses, including a 20% voting rights cap.
A likely deal also means that MultiChoice would be privatised and delisted from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). In the April 8th joint statement, Canal+ outlined a likely route to a secondary inward listing if its parent company, Vivendi, goes through with a plan to split itself into “several separately listed entities.”