France’s Canal+ doubles stake in South Africa’s MultiChoice in a year

Canal+, a unit of France’s $9.7 billion Vivendi SE, has been speeding up its acquisition of shares in South African television and entertainment company MultiChoice Group, with its stake having risen to 26.26% from 15.37% a year ago.

Canal+ bought 6.5% of MultiChoice in October of 2020 and within the same month almost doubled that to 12%, sparking talk of a buyout.

While MultiChoice rallied on the speculation, it said it had begun a collaboration with Canal+ on co-productions that would help with sharing costs.

Two years later and it’s again unclear what Vivendi’s intentions might be. Canal+ increased its stake to 20.12% in July and has twice now added more stock to its holdings in a company that has more than 76% of its shares in free float, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

If Canal+ were to buy 35% or more of MutliChoice’s shares, it would trigger a mandatory offer to shareholders.

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