Today, French media group Canal+ will make its mandatory offer to MultiChoice shareholders to acquire all the shares not already under its control.
In April, Multichoice and Canal+ reached an agreement by which Canal+ would acquire the Multichoice group, offering shareholders R125.00 per share.
Implementation of the offer will be subject to the fulfilment or, where applicable, waiver of certain suspensive conditions.
The Combined Circular will be distributed to shareholders today (4 June 2024), and will also be available on MultiChoice’s and Canal+’s websites, as well as on the iManage electronic platform.
It sets out, among other things, the terms of the offer, including suspensive conditions, and the MultiChoice independent board’s opinion on and recommendation.
The offer becomes live at 09h00 tomorrow (5 June) morning, and becomes wholly unconditional on 8 April 2025, with the results to be published no later than 30 April 2025.
The rationale behind the proposed acquisition is Canal+’s intention to build a global entertainment leader, with Africa at its heart, combining scale, complementary geographies, integrated and international reach with strong local roots, that will support the commercial development of Africa’s sporting and cultural industries and take leading and authentic African stories to a global audience.
The group believes that the competitive landscape for Africa’s media and entertainment industry will continue to undergo profound changes as the continent rapidly adopts broadband and mobile Internet. International media companies and global OTT platforms, will increasingly be able to use their scale and resources to expand internationally beyond their existing markets, increasing their focus on Africa and thereby challenging local rivals.
It believes a combined group would be better positioned to address key structural challenges and opportunities resulting from the progressive digitalisation and globalisation of the media and entertainment sector, the respective strengths of Canal+ and MultiChoice could form a global entertainment business with Africa at its heart.
By combining with Canal+, in addition to operating in over 50 countries across Africa, MultiChoice would be part of a broader group, present across Africa, Europe and Asia.