Jul 11, 2018
Sky agrees to sweetened £24.5bn takeover offer from Fox
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Fox was preparing to boost its offer for Sky to fend off Comcast, the cable and entertainment group, which swooped in this April with its own £12.50 a share bid for the company. Sky's independent committee said on Wednesday that the Fox bid "Represents a substantial increase in value relative to the Comcast offer", adding that it "Intends to unanimously recommend" the offer to Sky shareholders. The new offer is pitched below the trading range for Sky shares in recent days, which closed on Tuesday at £15.01, giving it a market value of £25.6bn. Sky has net debt of £7.4bn, according to FactSet data. Disney has agreed a $71bn takeover of Fox's entertainment assets, including its 39 per cent stake in Sky, and will take full ownership of Sky if Fox succeeds with its bid. Disney has also offered to reimburse Fox £1bn, or £1 per Sky share it does not already own, if its own deal to acquire Fox is blocked by regulators and thus disrupts the new arrangements made for Fox's takeover of Sky.
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