Telenor buys into TV4’s C More

Norwegian telecoms incumbent Telenor and Swedish media firm TV4 Group have entered into a co-ownership agreement for C More Entertainment, which runs its premium TV operations under the Canal+ brand.
Under the terms of the transaction, Telenor will…

Norwegian telecoms incumbent Telenor and Swedish media firm TV4 Group have entered into a co-ownership agreement for C More Entertainment, which runs its premium TV operations under the Canal+ brand.

Under the terms of the transaction, Telenor will acquire a 35% stake in C More Entertainment through a share purchase and a directed new share issue of the company’s shares, paying a cash consideration of SKr787m (E81m). Furthermore, the deal sees certain sports rights owned by Telenor, such as SAS Ligaen and the FIFA World Cup 2010, in Denmark being sublicensed to C More Entertainment. TV4 Group will remain as the company’s majority owner.

The two firms stated that the co-ownership agreement would provide Canal+ with long-term access to important content for its subscribers combining Telenor’s sports rights with C More’s existing premium film and sports offering. The agreement also opens the door for new media and telecom ventures and business opportunities, the two say.

TV4 Group CEP Jan Scherman commented: “Canal+ has developed very well since we acquired the company in 2008, and reported its best ever results last year. We are now creating even better opportunities for Canal+ to maintain its position as the Nordic region’s leading TV channel in the premium segment, and are also enlarging our offer”.

On closing, the Canal+ operational structure is to remain unchanged with the company’s business model to continue to be based on an operator-independent strategy.

C More Entertainment operates across the four Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, offering linear TV, pay-per-view and VoD services to over one million households. The company posted 2009 revenues of SKr1.6bn (E165m) and EBITDA of SKr111m (E11.5m), before restructuring costs.

C More Entertainment was originally launched in 1997 as the Scandinavian arm of French pay TV giant Canal+. In 2003, private equity firms Nordic Capital and Baker Capital launched an LBO of the broadcaster, consequently changing its name to C More. The sponsors then exited their investment in 2005 selling the business to pan-European pay-TV firm SBS Broadcasting. Following the E3.3bn merger of SBS with the KKR and Permira-owned German media group ProSiebenSat.1 in 2007, C More was sold a year later to Sweden’s TV4 Gruppen for a reported E320m.