BSkyB ups stake in Sky Deutschland

UK satcaster BSkyB has increased its investment in German broadcaster Sky Deutschland following a U-turn on the deal by the company’s biggest minority shareholder.

Crispin Odey, hedge fund boss and former son-in-law of Rupert Murdoch, said in July that he would not be parting with his 8% stake in Sky Deutschland.

Sky Deutschland’s board recommended that shareholders in the Germany pay TV broadcaster reject an offer from UK sibling BSkyB, describing the proposed price of €6.75 per share as “inadequate.”

However, Odey’s firm, Odey Asset Management, last week told the London stock exchange that it “has agreed to tender at least 97% of its shareholding in Sky Deutschland.”

In July, BSkyB agreed to buy its sister platforms in Italy and Germany from Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox for just shy of £5bn (US$8.33bn), with the UK firm taking complete control of Sky Italia and a controlling 57.4% stake in Sky Deutschland, which will now rise.

The UK satcaster was granted regulatory approval by the European Commission in September.

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.