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 15.6% at 11.97 euros in early trade – just below Drahi’s bid proposal – and giving the company a stock market value of around 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 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 = 1.1614 euros)(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Gwenaelle Barzic, Pamela Barbaglia and Anait Miridzhanian; editing by Jason Neely, Elaine Hardcastle and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Source: MetroXpress September 30, 2021 08:03 UTC