LONDON--British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (BSY.LN) said Friday
it has completed the placing of ordinary shares to raise 1.36
billion pounds ($2.32 billion), to part fund proposed
acquisitions.
The U.K.'s market-leading pay-television operator said a total
of 156.1 million new ordinary shares in BSkyB have been placed by
Barclays Bank PLC, acting through its investment bank and Morgan
Stanley Securities Ltd. at a price of 870 pence per placing
share.
Earlier Friday, BSkyB said it agreed to acquire its sister
companies in Germany and Italy from 21st Century Fox in a deal
worth just over $9 billion, the majority in cash, to create a
pan-European pay-TV giant with around 20 million customers across
Germany, Italy, Austria, the U.K. and Ireland.
The deal which will be funded through cash, new shares and debt,
is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.
21st Century Fox was until June 2013 part of the same company as
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones
Newswires.
BSkyB shares at 1420 GMT traded down 46 pence, or 4.9%, at 879
pence, valuing the company at GBP13.75 billion.
-Write to Razak Musah Baba at razak.baba@wsj.com; Twitter:
@Raztweet
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