👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Canal+ goes to the JSE

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Before you make your coffee this morning, Canal+, the French streaming giant that bought pay-TV giant MultiChoice, would have listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

The listing is more than a ceremonial bell-ringing. It fulfils one of the final regulatory commitments Canal+ made as part of its $3 billion acquisition of MultiChoice, which delisted from the JSE after the deal closed in December 2025. As part of the transaction, the company committed to securing a secondary inward listing on the JSE, giving local investors a way to buy Canal+ shares without leaving South Africa’s market.

No new shares are being issued. Investors on the JSE will simply be able to trade Canal+ stock locally while the company keeps its primary listing in London.

State of play: The move is a reminder of why Canal+ pursued MultiChoice in the first place. Africa sits at the heart of the broadcaster’s growth ambitions, and the acquisition delivered access to more than 50 countries, millions of subscribers, premium sports rights, and one of the continent’s largest local content businesses.

Growth, however, is far from guaranteed. MultiChoice entered the deal after losing 1.2 million subscribers in 2025 as inflation, currency depreciation, and streaming competition squeezed household budgets across its markets.

Canal+ believes scale can help reverse that decline. The company has set aside $115 million for a turnaround plan and expects to generate significant cost savings by integrating the two businesses.

Zoom out: Today’s listing checks off a regulatory requirement. Winning back subscribers is the challenge investors will be watching next.

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Ghana’s telecoms market has been a one-horse race for years; MTN Ghana controls 73.9% of the market with over 30 million subscribers.

Telecel Ghana, which rebranded from Vodafone Ghana after Telecel Group’s 2023 acquisition, holds 18.3% with 7.29 million users. The state-owned telecom firm is ramping up plans to claw back market share from leader MTN Ghana.

One of the ways it is prioritising this is through infrastructure upgrades: In May, Telecel began a nationwide network upgrade push that kicked off in Madina, Accra. The company said it plans to deploy over 100 high-traffic base station sites across 1,000 locations in the city. The upgrade, part of a $70 million deal with Huawei from November 2025, will allow Telecel to build a stronger telecom presence in Madina, a densely populated suburb and one of the commercial centres in Ghana.

Telecel’s investment coincides with a challenger operator emerging. In Ghana, MTN has historically dominated the telecom market, but Telecel sees an opportunity on two fronts.

First, the telecom operator is in the process of merging with struggling AT Ghana, a move that would bring an additional 3.2 million subscribers into its fold and raise its market share to about 26%. Telecel already competes with MTN on data and telecom prices, but its limited network reach has long been a barrier to growth.

If it can expand coverage into commercial centres with stronger revenue potential, it could become a more credible challenger to MTN in the coming years.

The opportunity is significant. Ghana is already MTN Group’s most profitable market, with subscribers consuming more data and voice than in many of its other operations. That suggests there is enough demand for Telecel to build a stronger case for itself.

The ball’s in Telecel’s court. Success in suburbs like Madina will depend on execution. Competitive prices alone may not be enough; Telecel will need to extend reliable connectivity to the last mile if it hopes to convert network upgrades into meaningful market share gains.

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If you own a BYD electric vehicle (EV) in Africa, you’re one of the customers driving the Chinese company’s dominance in the continent’s electric vehicle market.

According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), BYD’s share of Africa’s EV market surged from 4% in 2023 to 35% in 2025, showing how quickly the company has scaled across emerging markets.

Why is BYD growing this fast? While Africa’s EV market still has far lower uptake than petrol cars, BYD is attracting a growing base of loyal customers. In 2025, BYD car sales grew from 4,000 vehicles in 2023 to nearly 25,000 in 2025, with Egypt, Morocco and South Africa accounting for almost 70% of total demand.

State of play: Buying a brand new EV is not cheap, even for many African markets with slightly better disposable income. BYD has intentionally targeted that group by shipping cheaper EV models in markets like Egypt and South Africa, undercutting competitors like Maxus and Toyota, which recently introduced an EV in the market.

BYD’s expansion is also being backed by aggressive infrastructure plans in South Africa, the continent’s most developed auto market. In April, the company opened 32 new dealerships in the country, and plans to deploy between 200 and 300 fast-charging stations by the end of the year, positioning the country as a potential launchpad for wider African growth.

Between the lines: The broader trend points to a market that is still concentrated but becoming competitive, with Chinese automakers rapidly gaining ground as EV adoption begins to take hold in a handful of key economies.

Zoom out: For now, BYD’s dominance reflects scale and speed. Whether that advantage holds will depend on how quickly infrastructure, affordability, and policy support expand beyond a few urban centres.

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