{"id":534809,"date":"2024-05-02T08:14:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T06:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=534809"},"modified":"2024-05-02T08:18:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T06:18:32","slug":"dstv-creeping-takeover-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/534809-dstv-creeping-takeover-continues.html","title":{"rendered":"DStv creeping takeover continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>French media conglomerate Groupe Canal+ has acquired another 3,868,391 shares in DStv owner MultiChoice, bringing its total ownership of the company to 42.47%.<\/p>\n<p>It acquired the additional shares from 25 to 30 April for between R118.05 and R120.00 each.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCanal+ confirms that these acquisitions have already been disclosed to the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP) as required under the Companies Act and [the Takeover Regulations],\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n<p>Canal+ said it reserved the right to buy more shares, except as prohibited by legislation.<\/p>\n<p>The French media conglomerate\u2019s latest disclosure comes after a series of similar announcements from MultiChoice and itself.<\/p>\n<p>Three weeks ago, MultiChoice announced that <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/532307-south-africas-biggest-pay-tv-company-now-40-owned-by-french-media-conglomerate.html\"><strong>Canal+ had crossed 40% ownership<\/strong><\/a> of South Africa\u2019s pay-TV giant.<\/p>\n<p>Canal+ has since issued weekly announcements revealing that it has continued to buy up MultiChoice stock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome shareholders have asked whether Canal+ might cross the 50% shareholding in this way,\u201d MultiChoice stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not envisage this happening as exceeding 50% ownership would amount to a merger under the Competition Act, which would require prior approval from the Competition Tribunal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MultiChoice also reaffirmed that should Canal+ buy shares for more than R125 each, it would be obliged to increase its offer price to match.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadcasting\/499205-big-questions-over-foreign-ownership-of-dstv.html\"><strong>Canal+\u2019s creeping takeover<\/strong><\/a> of MultiChoice began in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>When its shareholding exceeded 20%, it raised concerns that it could be violating South Africa\u2019s Electronic Communications Act (ECA).<\/p>\n<p>The Act states that a foreigner may not, whether directly or indirectly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Exercise control over a commercial broadcasting licensee; or<\/li>\n<li>Have a financial interest or an interest either in voting shares or paid-up capital in a commercial broadcasting licensee exceeding 20%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>MultiChoice dismissed these concerns, saying compliance with the ECA is ensured through restrictions in its memorandum of incorporation, where voting rights for foreigners collectively are limited to 20%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>French media giant Groupe Canal+ continues to vacuum up MultiChoice stock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":411372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[66933,35,475,80587],"class_list":["post-534809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-groupe-canal","tag-headline","tag-multichoice","tag-takeover-regulation-panel-trp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}