Canal+ wraps up one condition of its MultiChoice purchase as it lists tomorrow. (Graphic: Nicola Mawson with screenshots) French media giant Canal+ will debut on the JSE tomorrow, giving shareholders the opportunity to buy its shares in London in pound sterling, as the London-Stock Exchange (LSE) remains its primary listing.As this is an inward listing, no new Canal+ shares will be made available to South African investors when the Kudu horn is blown at 9am to mark the opening of the market. Instead, local investors will be able to buy CNP stock as if they were trading on the LSE.Canal+ is inward listing on the JSE as part of the conditions attached to its $3 billion (R52.2 billion at the time) acquisition of MultiChoice last year, after building a stake from 2020 and making a formal offer in early 2024. The French broadcaster, which had an initial public offering on the LSE last year, created a stripped-out South African entity to comply with local broadcasting rules that limit foreign ownership of licence-holders to 20%.Peter Takaendesa, chief investment officer at Mergence Investment Managers, says shares traded in Johannesburg and London are effectively the same, and systems are in place to move them between the two markets when needed.Takaendesa notes the stock should largely follow the London valuation, considering exchange rate movements. This morning, the stock was trading 1.32% lower at £2.58, which would translate into a local currency value of R56.39 at an exchange rate of R21.82.“If one finds the investment case attractive compared to other opportunities on the JSE, then buying the shares and voting your rights won't be major issues technically,” says Takaendesa.Abax Investments portfolio manager Steve Minnaar says: “I’m happy to watch this game from the sidelines for now.”However, Takaendesa notes the Bolloré Group already controls 34% of the vote. This French conglomerate, founded in 1822, is listed in Paris but majority-controlled by the Bolloré family. It operates globally across three core business divisions: transportation and oil logistics, media and communications, and specialised industry.The Bolloré family is a prominent French business dynasty from Brittany and belongs to the Breton bourgeoisie, but was originally a family of fishermen, according to Wikipedia. The family is best known through Vincent Bolloré, who led the family-controlled Bolloré Group and later became closely associated with media giant Vivendi.Vincent Bolloré has been described as the “French Rupert Murdoch” and technically retired in 2022 at 72. His company’s acquisition style has been described by online publication Digital Journal as “aggressive”.Vincent Bolloré remains the paterfamilias of the family's business empire that holds a 34% stake in Canal+. (Photograph: Wikimedia Commons) Canal+'s pursuit of MultiChoice was driven by its ambition to expand across Africa. The deal provides access to a footprint spanning more than 50 countries, millions of pay-TV subscribers, extensive local content operations and premium sports rights.This gives the French media group a stronger platform from which to compete for audiences across the continent.Minnaar notes: “In the medium to longer term, they have to manage a long list of African currencies and local regulators – a tough ask.”Canal+ acquired MultiChoice after a difficult period for the South African pay-TV operator. In June last year, the company said it had lost almost three million subscribers within two years and absorbed a R10.2 billion negative impact on revenue due to local currency depreciation against the dollar.MultiChoice delisted from the JSE on 10 December 2025 after Canal+ completed its acquisition of all shares, ending the company’s roughly six-year run as a publicly traded company following its 2019 listing.Canal+ has unveiled a plan to turn MultiChoice around at a cost of almost R2 billion – which it calls a “boost plan” – aimed at restarting subscriber growth at the South African pay-TV operator after several difficult years.The French company aims to restart MultiChoice’s “commercial engine” through to 2027, before building foundations for the following decade from 2028. In March, CEO Maxime Saada said the company will “ensure we are well-positioned to benefit from the continent’s growth potential and turn around MultiChoice”.Canal+ shares are up 28.36% over the past five years, with the ticker moving upwards to a value of 258p. The cash is a reinvestment of the synergies Canal+ expects to reap from combining the businesses, which together now serve 28 million subscribers.Saada says the combined group would see savings of €250 million. That translates to R4.79 billion at the exchange rate at the time of R19.17 and is €100 million – or R1.9 billion – more than its initial estimate.Minnaar adds that Canal+ can likely run a better and less expensive business, although “its initial cuts to some sporting rights costs have not been popular, so one will have to see how that works out”.MultiChoice, having joined the Canal+ group in September 2025, contributed €683 million (R13 billion as of March when Canal+ reported results) to group revenue and €103 million (R2 billion) to adjusted earnings before interest and tax in the three months it was included for the year to December.Vincent Bolloré and his family, majority owners of the French conglomerate, Bolloré Group, is worth $10.7 billion (R173.51 billion at this morning’s exchange rate of R16.22) according to Forbes.After a brief period at Edmond de Rothschild, Vincent Bolloré took control of the struggling family business in 1981 and expanded it into a global conglomerate, which focuses on transportation and oil logistics, media and communications, and specialised industry, Forbes notes.Law firm Grenier Avocats says on its website that Vincent Bolloré became embroiled in a long-running French corruption investigation linked to allegations that his group's communications business helped political campaigns in Togo and Guinea in exchange for port concessions.Although Vincent Bolloré and two executives sought to resolve the matter through a plea agreement in 2021, a French court rejected the deal, ruling that the seriousness of the allegations warranted a public hearing, the law firm says.Grenier Avocats says France's highest court later ruled that references to the abandoned plea process should be removed from the case file but allowed the broader investigation to continue. Vincent Bolloré has denied wrongdoing, and the case has remained tied to questions around the group's historic expansion in Africa. Australia’s The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Vincent Bolloré pushed for far-right politics to back Marine Le Pen, a French lawyer and politician who served as the president of the far-right National Rally party from 2011 to 2021, according to Wikipedia. She ran for the French presidency in the 2012, 2017 and 2022 presidential elections.Vivendi chairman and Vincent’s son, Yannick Bolloré, has dismissed these claims, the newspaper reported.The group, which is active in media, advertising, shipping, construction and logistics, owns a majority stake in telecom conglomerate Vivendi. In December 2019, Vivendi agreed to sell a 10% stake in its Universal Music Group to billionaire Ma Huateng's Tencent Holdings.