CANAL+ listing on JSE a historic moment for the bourse

CANAL+ made its Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) debut on Wednesday, becoming the first French company – and the only global media and entertainment group – ever listed on the South African bourse – the biggest in Africa. The shares opened at R58.50 under ticker CNP and had climbed to R58.80 by early afternoon, signalling investor appetite for a company that now holds the reins of what was once Multi Choice, Africa’s dominant pay-TV operator. But this was never meant to be a purely commercial move. The listing was a regulatory concession, extracted by South African authorities as the price of letting a foreign media giant absorb a national champion. The Deal Behind the Debut CANAL+ completed its acquisition of MultiChoice in September 2025 after South Africa’s Competition Tribunal conditionally approved the roughly $2.9 billion (R35-55 billion) transaction. The French group, which had already built a substantial minority stake over several years, finally secured full control – but not without binding commitments. Regulators demanded a three-year job protection guarantee, continued funding for local content creation, and promotion of small businesses and exporters. They also required 30% black ownership, to be delivered through a separately licensed entity. Most significantly, CANAL+ had to list on the JSE. It was not optional. The company had already secured a London Stock Exchange listing in December 2024 following its spin-off from Vivendi, approved by 97.57% of shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting. Wednesday’s JSE debut makes those shares fully fungible between the two markets. MultiChoice, meanwhile, was delisted in December 2025. CANAL+ effectively took its place in the blue-chip index – just under foreign ownership. Scale and Significance The numbers behind CANAL+ are substantial. The group claims over 40 million subscribers globally, split roughly between 18 million in Europe and 23 million across mo