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 MultiChoice, 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.
