A French company offers $1.7 billion to buy Multichoice.

The Paris-based company Canal+ said in a statement on Thursday that, subject to receiving the required regulatory approvals, it has made a non-binding indicative offer to MultiChoice's board to purchase all of the issued ordinary shares that it does not currently possess.

MultiChoice disclosed in its most recent annual report that 140,160,277 of the 442,512,678 issued shares were owned by Canal+.

According to local media, Canal+ has been gradually acquiring MultiChoice shares on the open market for the last four years, culminating in its ownership of over thirty percent of the corporation.

Canal+ made an offer of R105 for each common share, which is 40% more than MultiChoice's closing share price of R75 on January 31. The remaining portion would set Canal+ back about R31.75 billion ($1.7 billion).

According to Canal+, MultiChoice would become a multinational media corporation as a result of its acquisition.

"For MultiChoice to continue to thrive in Africa, it will require a strategy that enhances its scale as well as strengthened local and global expertise," stated Maxime Saada, chairman and CEO of Canal+, in a statement.

"If our proposed offer is accepted, it would be a significant step forward in helping MultiChoice reach its full potential."

With the ultimate goal of listing in South Africa, Canal+ revealed that it plans to float in reaction to parent company Vivendi's aspirations to split into four entities.
"This will enable investors to gain from the merger of MultiChoice and Canal+; our ultimate objective is to also secure a listing in South Africa," the statement read.

In addition to better serving its customers with a world-class offering of sports, local, and international content, Canal+ aims to build an African media company of greater scale that can prosper in a cutthroat international market and guarantee that Africa can tell her story to a global audience on her terms.

However, a portion of the statement said, "Regional media companies must compete with the might of global media titans, who have enormous resources to invest in content, marketing, and technology. The media industry in which MultiChoice operates is becoming increasingly globalized and competitive."

According to Canal+, the only way to flourish in the environment is to operate at scale.

"MultiChoice would be placed on a stable long-term path and able to flourish if Canal+ and MultiChoice combined to form an organization with significant scale.
"Should this combination fail, this lack of scale is likely to become a more acute problem in the coming years, potentially impacting the company's mid-term trajectory and jeopardizing its standing as the leading media company in Africa," the firm stated.

The MultiChoice Group said in November 2023 that over the previous six months, its customer base had increased by 69%.

The business said in a statement that it performed admirably in achieving its operating goals for the six months that concluded on September 30, 2023 (1H FY24).

Established in 1984, Canal+ is a premium television channel in France. The Groupe Canal+, which is owned by Vivendi, owns 100% of it.