Canal+, the French pay TV operator, is still interested in buying Spanish counterpart Digital+, as part of its international expansion strategy, Canal+ CEO Bertrand Meheut told the Financial Times in an interview.
However, a spokeswoman for Canal+ told…
Canal+, the French pay TV operator, is still interested in buying Spanish counterpart Digital+, as part of its international expansion strategy, Canal+ CEO Bertrand Meheut told the Financial Times in an interview.
However, a spokeswoman for Canal+ told SatelliteFinance that this interest was not new and that nothing had changed since Canal+ first said it was looking to acquire the Spanish company.
In 2008, a joint bid between Spanish telco Telefonica and French media giant Vivendi, the main shareholder of Canal+, to acquire Digital+ outright was rejected because it did not meet Digital+ parent company Prisa’s original asking price of E3.5bn. While Prisa eventually lowered its asking price, to a value reported at E2.3bn-E2.5bn, this was still too high for the bidders.
Last year, however, Prisa finally agreed to a partial sale of Digital+ by yielding a 21% stake in the company to Telefonica for E470m in cash and debt.
In the meantime, Gestevision Telecinco, a Spanish private television company and unit of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset, said it signed a contract to purchase a 22% stake in Digital+. Telecinco was expected to pay Prisa E491m in cash for the stake. The deal is still pending approval from Spain’s competition authority CNC.
Given that Prisa still needs to significantly reduce its debt burden, a further stake sale is still widely regarded as likely and Canal+ would be a leading buy-side candidate. Meheut also told the Financial Times that the company could consider teaming up with Telefonica again for a potential deal.
Meanwhile, French media group Lagardère announced that it was pushing hard to list its 20% stake in Canal+ before the end of the year or at the beginning of 2011.
During a September conference call, Lagardère confirmed that Vivendi did not make a proposal to buy out Canal+, saying it preferred to keep its money to invest in telcos, according to Lagardère’s managing board. Lagardère therefore decided to pursue with an IPO.
However, during Vivendi’s 2010 half-year earnings call, CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said that the company’s objective remained “full ownership of our France-based entities”, which include SFR but also Canal+, in which it already owns 80%. Levy added that “there may well be opportunities in the near future”.
