ITV shares were down sharply on Wednesday after Liberty Global cut its stake by half in a £135m share sale.
Liberty Global was the group’s largest shareholder, and while its involvement has kept takeover speculation alive, a formal bid never materialised.
After ten years of poor share price performance since Liberty initially bought a 6.4% stake in ITV, Liberty looks to have had enough and thrown in the towel on 50% of its holding.
However, this doesn’t mean that the prospect of a takeover has gone away. Over the years, ITV has been the subject of bid speculation concerning multiple parties that may now see an opportunity to pounce.
“Liberty Global halving its stake in ITV is a significant development as it effectively removes a potential blocker if someone makes a takeover offer for the media group,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.
“Liberty Global previously held 10% of ITV which effectively gave it a front seat to either consider a bid down the line, or to stop others swooping in on the cheap. It originally bought a 6.4% stake from Sky and then topped up, citing the stake purely as an investment.
“Over the years, Liberty Global showed no interest in wanting to own ITV outright but it stayed put on the shareholder register, quietly observing as the media group was subject to perennial bid talk.”
ITV shares were 8% lower at the time of writing.