25th Sep 2018 08:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - US cable-television company Comcast Corp said on Tuesday that, following its winning bid to acquire Sky PLC, it has purchased on the market a 30% stake in the FTSE 100 pay television provider, resulting in its takeover offer becoming mandatory.
Comcast said it acquired 515.9 million Sky shares in market purchases at a price of 1,728.00 pence per share, the same price as its winning bid for all of Sky.
On Saturday last week, an auction overseen by the UK Takeover Panel saw Comcast's GBP30.0 billion bid win over Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's, after going the maximum three rounds.
Comcast said Tuesday that as a result of its purchase of 30% or more of Sky, its offer for the company is now mandatory. It said that as the takeover is likely to complete before the usual date for Sky's final dividend, it will make a payment in lieu of the dividend, raising the value of its Sky off to GBP30.6 billion.
Comcast said Tuesday it will seek to purchase further Sky shares at the same price. However it noted it will not be able to buy shares from shareholders in the US, due to regulatory requirements.
Fox holds a 39.19% stake in Sky and had said on Monday it is still considering its options with regards to the stake.
Shares in Sky were up 0.4% at 1,727.93 pence on Tuesday.
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