French billionaire’s firm buys additional $47.63-million stake in DStv parent, MultiChoice

Feyisayo Ajayi -

Groupe Canal+ SA (Canal+), the media arm of Vivendi, a Paris-based firm controlled by French billionaire Vincent Bollore’s Bollore Group, has yet again increased its stake by a further 7,374,918 ordinary shares in South Africa’s MultiChoice Group, the parent company of DStv, the leading satellite-TV service in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Canal+ further ups MultiChoice stake in Africa push

According to its latest May 14 filing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Canal+ acquired an additional 7,374,918 MultiChoice shares at an average price of R119.59 ($6.499) between May 8 and 10, for a total of R882.44 million ($47.63 million). This strengthens Canal+’s position as MultiChoice’s largest shareholder, with a present stake of 45.2 percent.

Earlier on May 8, Canal+ was reported by Billionaires.Africa to have acquired 4,731,709 MultiChoice shares at an average price of R119.73 ($6.47) between May 2 and 5, for a total of R566.53 million ($30.61 million) increasing its stake to 43.54 percent.

The move follows Canal+’s February 2024 bid rise to a 36.6-percent stake in MultiChoice for R55 billion ($2.9 billion) which triggered a mandatory offer requirement, up from an initial offer of R46 billion ($2.5 billion). This highlights Canal+’s strategic intent to solidify its foothold in Africa’s growing media and entertainment market.

Vivendi’s expanding African ambitions

Vivendi, partly owned by Bollore Group, is using its subsidiary Canal+ to steadily increase its stake in MultiChoice, signaling its expanding ambitions in Africa’s entertainment market. MultiChoice, which operates the popular Showmax streaming service, is a strong competitor to global players like Netflix. Beyond its stake in Vivendi, Bollore Group also maintains investment in Wifirst, an internet service provider, diversifying its reach across various African industries.

French billionaire Vincent Bollore, the former chairman of Bollore Group, is currently worth $9.45 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This cements his position as the 267th richest person in the world, ahead of Laurent Dassault, a director at Groupe Dassault, the Paris-based company that controls military jet planemaker Dassault Aviation.