{"id":750670,"date":"2024-02-11T07:52:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-11T05:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=750670"},"modified":"2024-02-11T07:52:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-11T05:52:26","slug":"potential-multichoice-buyout-breaks-new-ground-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/750670\/potential-multichoice-buyout-breaks-new-ground-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential MultiChoice buyout breaks new ground in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Canal+’s potential acquisition of MultiChoice is the first of its kind in South Africa, with huge question marks over the bureaucratic process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the last day of January, the French broadcaster announced its intention to acquire all of the issued ordinary shares of MultiChoice that it did not already own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It offered to pay R105 per share in cash, representing a premium of 40% to MultiChoice\u2019s closing share price of R75 on 31 January 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur Potential Offer, if successful, would be an important next step for MultiChoice to realise its full potential,” said Chairman and CEO of Canal+ Maxime Saada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCombined with Canal+, MultiChoice would have the resources to invest in scale, local African talent and stories, and best-in-class technology to allow it to grow in Africa and compete with the global streaming media giants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the Multichoice board said that the proposed offer price of R105 per share significantly undervalues the company and its future prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens next <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time as the rejection, it was announced on SENS that Canal+ has also increased its stake in MultiChoice to 35%. This triggers a mandatory offer to all shareholders as per the Companies Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MultiChoice has thus asked the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP) if a mandatory offer must be made. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking with the Business Times<\/a>, Mike Steere from Avior Capital Markets said that the question is now if Canal+ will be forced to make another offer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Icasa regulations restrict the French company’s voting rights to 20%, with the Companies Act specifically referencing voting rights when assessing if a mandatory offer is needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that this presents a unique case, as it is untested in law or at the TRP. If it does not have to make a mandatory offer, the French broadcaster could start buying MultiChoice shares at a huge discount to its volume weighted average price (VWAP). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Weather Capital’s Jarred Houston said that the case is unique due to broadcasting regulatory limits on foreign ownership and voting rights versus the mandatory offer at 35% ownership level as per the Companies Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It thus depends on which regulation is applied and whether a mandatory offer is needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houston said that the TRP’s objective is to ensure that the best interests of minority shareholders are intact, but it is unclear which decision would best achieve this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the TRP’s decision, there is still significant uncertainty over how Icasa or the Competition Commission will view the transaction. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read<\/strong>: Massive loss for Multichoice <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French broadcaster Canal+ may have to make another bid for MultiChoice – but there is still uncertainty over the regulations for such a deal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":716018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[6633,26,1253],"class_list":["post-750670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-canal","tag-headline","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750670"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750688,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750670\/revisions\/750688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}