French media giant Groupe Canal+ has all but completed its takeover of MultiChoice, securing 94.39% of the South African pay-TV group’s issued shares following the close of its mandatory offer to shareholders.
The result, announced to investors on Monday, clears the final hurdle for Canal+ to take full ownership of MultiChoice, ending the company’s six-year run as a separately listed company on the JSE.
The offer, which closed on 10 October, was accepted by shareholders holding more than 217.6 million MultiChoice shares, representing about 92.5% of the shares subject to the offer. Combined with the shares Canal+ already held, the French company’s total stake has risen to just under 95%.
Canal+ also confirmed it will follow through on its pledge to undertake a secondary inward listing on the JSE.
Because the offer was accepted by holders of more than 90% of the shares, Canal+ said it will now invoke provisions of South Africa’s Companies Act to acquire the balance of MultiChoice shares at the same R125/share offer price. Once that process is complete, MultiChoice will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Canal+.
The group said it will then apply to have MultiChoice’s listing on the JSE terminated, pending approval from the South African Reserve Bank. Trading in MultiChoice shares will be suspended once notice of the delisting is issued.
Canal+ also confirmed it will follow through on its pledge to undertake a secondary inward listing on the JSE, subject to regulatory approval. The move, promised during the competition approval process, is designed to preserve South African investor access to the combined entity and maintain liquidity in local markets.
“Given the important role Canal+ will now play in South Africa and across the African continent, I believe it to be critically important that domestic investors have the ability to have exposure to a leading media and entertainment company on the JSE,” said Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada.
The company, which will maintain its primary listing in London, said the inward listing “will broaden the investor base, reinforce the company’s long-term commitment to South Africa and Africa’s creative economy, and support continued institutional exposure to the media sector”.
End of an era
The deal marks the largest transaction ever undertaken by Canal+, creating a combined group that will serve more than 40 million subscribers across nearly 70 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia, supported by a workforce of about 17 000 people.
MultiChoice, which traces its roots to Naspers’s early pay-TV ventures in the 1980s, has been a fixture of the JSE since it was spun off as an independent entity in 2019. Its flagship DStv platform dominates the South African subscription-TV market, though in recent years it has come under pressure from global streaming rivals such as Netflix and Disney+.
Canal+ first disclosed a small shareholding in MultiChoice in 2020 and gradually increased its stake until crossing the 35% threshold earlier this year, triggering a mandatory offer under South African takeover regulations.
After months of regulatory scrutiny – including a detailed review by the Competition Commission and Takeover Regulation Panel – the offer became unconditional in September.
Once a so-called “squeeze-out” is completed, MultiChoice shareholders who did not accept the offer will be compulsorily bought out for cash. MultiChoice will then delist from the JSE, while Canal+ pursues its secondary inward listing in Johannesburg.
