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ITV value dives £2.5bn on Brexit

June 28, 2016

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has seen almost £2.5 billion (€3bn) wiped off its stock market value since the Brexit vote, raising speculation the company could become the target of a takeover.

ITV, which saw its share price fall by more than 20 per cent on June 24th following the Brexit results, continued to see concerned investors drill its price down more than 5 per cent in early trading on June 27th.

Investors worried about the repercussions of Brexit on ITV, which relies on a now jittery advertising market for much of its revenues, have driven the broadcaster’s market capitalisation from £9 billion to about £6.5 billion in the days since the EU referendum.  City analysts have begun to speculate if the share price decline, coupled with the UK’s currency crash, down 10 per cent against the US dollar, might prompt foreign media companies to consider making an opportunistic bid for ITV.

“This increases the chance of a bid by one one of the major US media companies where there is a historical and present interest in the UK market,” said Ian Whittaker, an analyst at Liberum. “Not only from the established media giants, but also from new media/tech companies (for example, we believe that several of the US internet giants explored a bid for the English Premier League rights in the last bidding round).”

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