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Investor rejects BSkyB’s German offer

Sky Deutschland’s biggest minority investor has rejected the offer from UK satcaster BSkyB to buy his stake in the company after claiming the price “significantly understates” the value of the business.

BSkyB bought out its sister platforms in Italy and Germany from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox for just shy of £5bn (US$8.33bn) last week in a move that saw the UK firm take complete control of Sky Italia and a controlling 57.4% stake in Sky Deutschland.

It was then obliged to make an offer for the remaining shares in the German broadcaster, but hedge fund boss – and former son-in law of Murdoch – Crispin Odey said he would not be parting with his 8% stake.

Odey’s firm, Odey Asset Management, said the price offered by BSkyB was at a “nil premium” and that they would not be selling up. However, BSkyB, with its majority stake, will still be able to steer the German firm’s operations.

BSkyB CEO Jeremy Darroch told UK newspaper Daily Telegraph: “Our view is with 57% we’re very happy and we can execute everything we want to do.”

The takeover was first mooted in May and sees BSkyB paying £2.07bn in cash plus its 21% stake in National Geographic Channel for Sky Italia and £2.9bn for Sky Deutschland.

The enlarged multinational ‘Sky Europe’ pay TV provider will serve an estimated 20 million subscribers and Sky is hoping the move will allow it to make further in-roads into the European pay market, which stands at more than 97 million households across the three countries.

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