Sky Deutschland rejects BSkyB offer

Sky Deutschland’s board has recommended shareholders in the Germany pay TV broadcaster reject an offer from UK sibling BSkyB to buy their stakes in the firm.

BSkyB agreed a deal in July to buy out its sister platforms in Italy and Germany from Rupert 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.

The UK satcaster, which was recently granted regulatory approval from the European Commission for the deal, is obliged to make offers for remaining stakes in the German broadcaster, but its board believes the proposed price of €6.75 per share is “inadequate”.

The German firm did, however, add that it realised “the strategic rationale of a closer alignment of the businesses of BSkyB, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia and the potential benefit of the combined scale.”

BSkyB said it welcomed the comment on the “strategic rationale” for the deal but added that with its majority stake, it would still be able to steer the German firm’s operations.

“There is no minimum acceptance to our offer and we look forward to completing the acquisition of Sky Italia and a majority of Sky Deutschland later this year,” BSkyB said in a statement.

Hedge fund boss – and former son-in law of Murdoch – Crispin Odey has previously said he would not be parting with his 8% stake in Sky Deutschland because it was at a “nil premium.”

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.