Canal+ has increased its shareholding in pay-TV operator MultiChoice to 12% as the Vivendi’s own company continues to see value in the South African-based firm.
MultiChoice on Thursday informed investors that Canal+ has increased its stake to 12% of the company’s total ordinary shares in issue.
“As a publicly held company, MultiChoice regularly engages with its strategic partners and maintains an open dialogue with the investment community,” MultiChoice said.
“The group’s policy is not to comment on its individual shareholders nor on its interactions with them. The company remains committed to acting in the best interests of all shareholders and to create sustainable long-term shareholder value.”
Earlier this month, Canal+ acquired 6.5% stake in MultiChoice, raising speculation that the global pay-TV operators was preparing for a hostile takeover of the local company.
However, its ‘plans’ may be scuppered by the country’s Electronic Communications Act (ECA), which prevent foreign firms from own 20% in a commercial broadcasting licensee such as MultiChoice.
Canal+ Group, the pay-TV subsidiary of France’s Vivendi, is “evolving from an aggregator of content to an aggregator of apps” through distribution deals with the likes of Netflix.
The MultiChoice Group is by now established as the leading provider of video entertainment in Africa, with access to 19.5m households across the continent. It is also one of the fastest-growing pay-TV broadcast providers globally – and that growth is driven by Africa.
MultiChoice has become the largest local content creator on the continent, with a library of more than 56 000 hours of local content and has produced content in 17 languages for distribution via 33 proprietary general entertainment channels in 50 countries. In 2013, local content spends as a percentage of total general entertainment content spend was 30%. In 2020 it was 40% and is targeted to reach 45% by 2022.
