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The boss of Canal+ has said that the French media group does not regret picking the London stock market despite a sharp drop in its market value since listing in December.
Maxime Saada, chief executive of the Paris-based group, said he had expected selling pressure to weigh down the stock — given the need for some French shareholders to exit after it was spun out from parent company Vivendi — but “not this low”.
Shares in the group opened trading in London last year at about 290p, below the level some analysts had expected, and have since fallen to 173p, giving it a market value of £1.7bn. That makes it smaller than British broadcaster ITV, which is worth about £2.7bn despite having lower revenues than its French rival.
Saada said the company had no regrets about its decision, however, adding that new UK and US investors were starting to appear in the shareholder register. “We are not in a hurry”, he told the Financial Times. “It’s a three-year story”.
He said some investors were also waiting for the completion of a “transformational” deal to acquire MultiChoice, the African pay-TV company, which would enable Canal+ to give better forward-looking guidance. The transaction is expected to be finalised later this year.
Saada said the group was not seeking any large-scale M&A while it waited for the MultiChoice deal to complete. He added that he was not interested in buying ITV Studios, the TV production arm of the British broadcaster that has attracted interest from private equity groups and other rivals.
In its first set of results since listing in London, Canal+ on Tuesday reported a 3.6 per cent rise in revenue to €6.45bn in its 2024 financial year, buoyed by successes from its film studio arm, as well as a rise in direct subscriptions. Earnings before interest and taxes before exceptional items rose 5.4 per cent to €503mn, at a 7.8 per cent margin.
The group said on Monday it had struck a deal with France’s cinema industry that will enable it to remain the only pay-TV company to broadcast films six months after their theatrical release in the country.
Canal+ will pay a minimum of €480mn over the three-year term of the agreement to support French films, compared with €220mn per year previously, after Disney+ secured a deal that enabled it to broadcast its films and other French productions on its streaming platform nine months — rather than 17 — after their theatrical release.
Other US streamers are held back by more than a year before they can show movies that have been in the cinema.
Studiocanal, the group’s studio arm, also released several successful films last year, including Amy Winehouse’s biopic Back to Black, Wicked Little Letters and Paddington in Peru, which has taken more than $160mn in global box sales so far.
However, the group’s revenues are expected to be impacted this year by its decision to remove its paid channels from terrestrial TV in France, as well as the termination of several third-party content contracts in the country, including Disney.
Saada said the company would be focused on cash generation in future, with bonuses for the management to be redrawn to have stronger links to cash and earnings.