MultiChoice booms on JSE
March 1, 2019
By Chris Forrester
Pan-African pay-TV company MultiChoice was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on February 27th and investors saw an immediate rise of 16 per cent in value. MultiChoice has been spun off as a separate business by technology conglomerate Naspers.
“We are happy with where the share opened and how it is trading,” MultiChoice chief financial officer Tim Jacobs said in an interview on the debut. “We expect it to settle down in the next three months We have identified about 40 million additional subscribers that could be signed on in the middle income and mass market.”
However, there is some controversy following the listing. ICASA, the South African media regulator, has told MultiChoice that it has jumped the gun by listing while there is a complaint filed against it that has yet to be resolved.
ICASA’s statement said that Khulisa Social Group NPC had lodged a complaint with the regulator against MultiChoice in respect of the stock exchange listing. The complaint argues that MultiChoice is in contravention of the Electronic Communications Act.