{"id":793099,"date":"2024-10-01T10:19:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T08:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=793099"},"modified":"2024-10-01T10:22:03","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T08:22:03","slug":"big-step-for-r55-billion-multichoice-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/793099\/big-step-for-r55-billion-multichoice-takeover\/","title":{"rendered":"Big step for R55 billion Multichoice takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Multichoice and Canal+ are pushing ahead with a potential merger, with both parties now approaching regulators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An independent board recently said that Canal+’s offer consideration of R125 per share is fair and reasonable and recommended that shareholders accept it once it becomes unconditional. Multichoice\u2019s share price currently stands at R109 per share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ attempted to purchase Multichoice at the start of the year, with its opening bid of R54 billion rejected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Canal+ then increased its shareholding in Multichoice to over 35%, meaning it had to make an offer to purchase the rest of the company. The French broadcaster\u2019s shareholding now stands at over 45%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Multichoice having 442,512,678 shares in issue, the takeover bid is worth R55.3 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multichoice and Canal+ have now made a joint merger control filing to the Competition Commission regarding the offer, as required by the Competition Act, No.89 of 1998. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canal+ and Multichoice are also engaging with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (\u201cICASA\u201d) and other regulatory authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transaction is classified as a “large merger” under the Competition Act, which requires approval from the Competition Tribunal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Competition Commission will thus consider the filing and refer its recommendations to the Competition Tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the regulatory process underway, Canal+ and Multichoice will provide shareholders with further updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mulitchoice said that the terms and conditions of the Offer, as contained in the Combined Circular, remain unchanged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shareholders have until 22 April 2025 to trade in Multichoice Shares to participate in the offer as per the circular: <\/p>\n\n\n

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Multichoice and Canal+ have, however, remained quiet on some of the regulatory hurdles that affect the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multichoice previously said it was working to circumvent South Africa\u2019s foreign broadcast restrictions, which limit foreign entities from holding more than 20% of a South African broadcaster\u2019s voting rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also plans to maintain Multichoice\u2019s BBBEE credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read<\/strong>: The woman running a R38 billion financial powerhouse \u2013 the first ever in South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canal+’s plan to purchase MultiChoice has taken the next step, with regulators now looking at the deal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":747504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5554],"tags":[6633,26,1253],"class_list":["post-793099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-canal","tag-headline","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793099","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=793099"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":793119,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793099\/revisions\/793119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}