Warsaw: Vivendi's Canal Plus agreed to pay €230 million (Dh1.1 billion) for 40 per cent of N-Vision, the owner of TVN, Poland's largest television station.
The French media company has the option to take full control of Amsterdam-based N-Vision, which owns 51 per cent of TVN, within four years after closing the transaction, probably in the second half of next year, TVN said yesterday in a regulatory statement in Warsaw.
Canal Plus and TVN are merging their Polish satellite pay-TV businesses in a joint venture to compete with Cyfrowy Polsat, Poland's largest pay-television operator. The new merged platform will have 2.5 million viewers and expand TVN's reach in Poland, the European Union's largest eastern member.
TVN's pay-TV ‘n' platform valuation is "a very positive information", Dominik Niszcz, an analyst at Raiffeisen Centrobank, said by phone from Vienna. "TVN disposes a company that reported losses and in exchange it gets a venture from which it will have dividends."
Controlling stake
Canal Plus will have 51 per cent in the new firm, while TVN will hold 32 per cent and Polish cable television provider UPC, will have 17 per cent. TVN's stake is valued at about 1.9 billion zloty (Dh2.03 billion), it said.
The N-Vision deal won't trigger the early redemption of TVN bonds or a mandatory tender offer for TVN's free float of shares, the company said in a separate e-mailed statement. Deutsche Bank was TVN's financial adviser in the deal.
TVN, which will book a non-cash profit of 700 million zloty from the Canal Plus agreement, is the most indebted non-financial company in Warsaw's benchmark WIG20 Index.
