French media house Vivendi’s pay-TV business, Canal+, has submitted a bid to acquire the pay-TV business MultiChoice Group in South Africa.
According to sources, Canal+, which already holds a substantial 32% stake in the group, hopes to obtain a listing in South Africa.
If the offer is accepted, this will give the business the funds it needs to invest in technology, local African talent and stories, and scale in order to expand throughout Africa.
MultiChoice Group, the largest pay-TV provider in Africa, has consistently invested significant amounts to combat competition from global streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney, some of which have also made inroads into local programming.
Canal+ issued a statement confirming that it has submitted a non-binding indicative offer to acquire all outstanding ordinary shares of MultiChoice, subject to obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals.
The proposed offer stands at R105 per ordinary share, reflecting a 40% premium over MultiChoice’s closing share price of R75 on January 31, 2024. In its latest annual report, MultiChoice disclosed that Canal+ already owns 140,160,277 of its 442,512,678 issued shares.
If the bid is successful, Canal+ would need to invest close to R32 billion to acquire the remaining shares of MultiChoice Group.
