Standard Bank Advises on CANAL+ Listing, Expanding Access for South African Investors
The inward secondary listing gives South African investors direct access to CANAL+, a global media and entertainment company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), while preserving a single, fully fungible pool of shares across the JSE and LSE.
Standard Bank is proud to have acted as joint financial advisor and transaction sponsor to CANAL+ on its successful secondary inward listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) – a landmark transaction that brings a globally recognised media and entertainment group to Africa’s premier exchange and provides South African investors with direct access to a leading international content platform.
Standard Bank played a central role in helping to facilitate this important transaction, bringing together deep local market knowledge, execution expertise and regulatory insight as part of the advisor group supporting CANAL+ through the JSE listing process. The transaction reflects Standard Bank’s ability to connect global issuers with African pools of capital and to execute complex, high-profile cross-border equity capital markets transactions.
The inward secondary listing gives South African investors direct access to CANAL+, a global media and entertainment company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), while preserving a single, fully fungible pool of shares across the JSE and LSE. Whilst no new shares were offered or issued, the listing is expected to enhance the long-term liquidity and tradability of CANAL+ shares and broaden the company’s shareholder base.
The listing is significant for both the JSE and South African capital markets more broadly. It introduces one of the world’s recognised media and content groups to the local market, supports the continued diversification and internationalisation of the exchange, and reinforces Johannesburg’s role as a gateway through which global businesses can access African capital. It also follows CANAL+’s combination with MultiChoice, further embedding the group in the African market and aligning its operational and capital markets presence with its long-term ambitions on the continent.
CANAL+ today operates in more than 70 countries and serves over 42 million subscribers globally, with a strong footprint across both Europe and Africa. Its African operations are central to the group’s long-term growth strategy, supported by decades of experience on the continent, investment in local content and distribution, and a broader ambition to build a leading entertainment platform across Africa and Europe. The JSE listing complements these ambitions by deepening the group’s connection to South African investors and the region’s financial markets.
