PARIS (Reuters) – Shares in French satellite company Eutelsat surged on Thursday after the company rejected a bid proposal from billionaire Patrick Drahi, whose business interests include auction house Sotheby’s and media group Altice.
“Eutelsat Communications confirms that the proposal received from Mr. Patrick Drahi – and rejected unanimously by therelevant governance bodies of the company – prices Eutelsat at 12.10 euros per share, all dividend attached,” it said.
Eutelsat shares were up by around 16.8% at 12.09 euros in early session trading, giving the company a market capitalisation of around 2.8 billion euros ($2.39 billion).
Reuters earlier reported that Drahi had made a bid approach for Eutelsat and held talks with its top investors including state-backed Bpifrance which has a 20% stake in the company.
($1 = 1.1714 euros)
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Gwenaelle Barzic and Pamela Barbaglia; editing by Jason Neely and Elaine Hardcastle)
