South Africa: Canal+ Becomes First French Company to List in Johannesburg

Canal+ rose in its Johannesburg Stock Exchange debut after the French media group completed its acquisition of MultiChoice, giving South African investors exposure to the enlarged pay-TV and streaming company.

The stock climbed to R58.50 in early trading, above the reference price based on its London-listed shares. Canal+ has a market value of about £2.5 billion and becomes the first French company to trade on the JSE's main board.

The secondary listing gives Canal+ a rand-based market value of about R57.7 billion, large enough to enter the FTSE/JSE Top40 Index. Its inclusion will remove Mr Price Group from the gauge. Canal+ will retain its primary listing in London.

Canal+ took effective control of MultiChoice in 2025, and the African pay-TV group ended its Johannesburg listing in December. The combined company will use MultiChoice's SuperSport sports rights, local content production and DStv platform to compete with Netflix, Disney and other global streaming groups across Africa.

The planned super app shows the direction: rather than only sell traditional TV packages, Canal+ wants to become a distribution platform for multiple entertainment services. The JSE listing also gives African investors a way to own part of the enlarged group after MultiChoice's delisting. For the JSE, the arrival of a large global media company helps offset years of delistings and adds another major name to the market. The test will be whether Canal+ can turn African scale into growth.

Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox

To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you.

There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.

AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 90 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington DC.