French media giant Canal+ completes acquisition of MultiChoice

French media giant Canal+ has completed a buyout of South Africa’s MultiChoice Group, the parent company of pay TV operators DSTV and GOTV.

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CEO Maxime Saada announced a new board to oversee the broadcaster during a media call on Monday following the buyout. The acquisition is valued at R35 billion ($2 billion).

“A number of our subscribers and operations are in Europe. These two legs that we have with Africa and Europe will, I believe, deliver tremendous value to all stakeholders,” the CEO said.

Canal+ hopes to gain vast traction in Africa’s pay TV market via the transaction by leveraging MultiChoice’s operations across fifty countries on the continent. Mr Saada stated that his company is looking to deploy strategies that will position it on the pathway to becoming one of the top players in global entertainment.

The combined entity plans to serve over 40 million subscribers in almost seventy countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, with the continent alone accounting for 63 per cent of that.

Canal+ obtained approval from South Africa’s Competition Tribunal in July to proceed with the acquisition, subject to agreed terms and conditions.

Among the conditions was a package of guaranteed public interest commitments proposed by the parties. It supported the involvement of firms controlled by Historically Disadvantaged Persons and Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises in the audio-visual industry in South Africa.

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Canal+ noted that the package will maintain funding for local South African general entertainment and sports content, affording domestic content creators a robust foundation for future success.

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The commission said the combined worth of all the public interest commitments by merger parties was expected to reach nearly 26 billion rand in the next three years.

MultiChoice executed the restructuring of its South African operations a few months ago in accordance with the terms of the deal as approved by the tribunal in July. It plans to spin off its local unit, the holder of its broadcasting permit, into a separate, autonomous entity that will be majority-owned and controlled by Historically Disadvantaged Persons.

Canal+ separated from Vivendi, its parent company, last December, and tabled an offer of R125 in cash thereafter for every MultiChoice share it did not own.