MIDAS SHARE TIPS: Should you say oui to Canal+? The French media giant makes its debut in London after the IPO in Paris

Anxious shoppers looking for a last-minute stock filler could do worse than buying 1000 Years Of Annoying The French.

Author Stephen Clarke’s fantastic romp through ten centuries of Anglo-French relations reveals that croissants were made by an Austrian baker, that William the Conqueror was a sworn enemy of France and that the guillotine was invented in Yorkshire.

Now a new joke can be added to the list: French billionaire Vincent Bollore’s decision to list Canal+, the country’s flagship media company, on the London stock market, rather than the Paris stock exchange.

Canal+ has been hailed as Britain’s largest IPO for more than two years.

Valued at more than £2 billion, Bollore’s decision has given a much-needed boost to the London market, which has suffered as sentiment has turned against UK shares and investors have increasingly poured their money into US shares.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves made the most of the London coup by inviting Canal+ boss Maxime Saada to 11 Downing Street last week and telling him how excited she was about the decision to mention here.

But for retail investors the key question is whether the shares will prove a glitzy addition to the UK market or be a flop like so many debuts in recent years.

The first signals are not encouraging. Shares started trading at 290p but ended the day more than 20 percent lower at 226.4p. Yesterday they fell again, falling a further 6.8 per cent, or 15.35p, to 211.05p.

Unlike most IPOs, Canal+ is, in city jargon, a demerger. This means that it will be split off from parent company Vivendi, a conglomerate with a multi-billion turnover on the French stock exchange.

Some Vivendi shareholders only want to hold French shares and some are not allowed to own investments outside Paris, so there are plenty of sellers. Others sell for tax reasons.

Potential buyers are biding their time and weighing whether they want the new shares, and if so, at what price. So should small British investors buy into this newly created French company?

Canal+ was founded 40 years ago as a French subscription TV channel. Today it is a global entertainment company operating in more than 50 countries.

StudioCanal, founded next to the TV branch, has made an important contribution to the growth. It is now a major production house and is behind the Christmas feel-good hit Paddington In Peru.

Seen by many as utterly cute – and scorned by others as sentimental schmaltz – Paddington In Peru is undeniably a record-breaker, grossing almost £10 million in its opening weekend.

Featuring stars like Ben Whishaw, Olivia Colman and Hugh Bonneville, the film seems to embody British culture and values.

But StudioCanal, which has made the cut, has a selection that includes a range of quintessentially British titles, such as Wicked Little Letters, also starring Oscar winner Colman, and Amy Winehouse’s life story Back To Black.

There is also a rich library of films and series, one of the largest in the world, with 8,000 offerings to its name, from Terminator 2 and Rambo to Bridget Jones and Love Actually.

TV companies have had a torrid time in the digital age. Streaming companies like Netflix, Apple and Amazon have turned the industry on its head by offering highly flexible subscription offers that give couch surfers access to countless movies and series at any hour of the day or night.

Here, BBC and ITV have been catching up with iPlayer and ITV X. But Saada, head of Canal+, took a different approach.

With a mix of Gallic charm and Parisian panache, he approached Netflix with a proposal: that instead of operating as rivals, they could act as partners.

In practice, this meant that Canal+ would offer its subscribers a tip-top package, combining its existing own title offering with access to the entire Netflix portfolio of films and series.

Netflix boss Reed Hastings agreed, and Saada has since persuaded Apple TV, Paramount and HBO producer Max to join the fold. Canal+ can therefore present itself to industry competitors and potential investors as a unique ‘super-aggregator’.

For subscribers, this means they can choose from a wide range of entertainment on one platform. Never switch from one streamer to another again.

Even sports fans are well catered for, with Premier League matches and Formula 1 races, as well as numerous lesser-known competitions.

Monthly prices range from €2 to €80 and the group has almost 27 million subscribers.

Saada and his team are ambitious and hope to increase the number of paid subscribers to 50 million and more through a mix of organic growth and acquisitions.

British couch surfers are not in Saada’s sights so we cannot subscribe and there are no plans for change in the short term. Further afield, however, Canal+ has acquired a 45% stake in MultiChoice, a leading entertainment company in Africa, offering TV, video, streaming and sports to millions of consumers across the continent.

Earlier this year, Saada, 54, launched a bid to acquire the remaining shares in MultiChoice – a deal recommended by MultiChoice’s board that would transform Canal+’s business.

The group also has a growing presence in Asia, with a large 37 percent stake in popular streaming platform Viu, a stake that is likely to increase over time.

Saada’s stable even includes a YouTube-like video-sharing platform known as Daily Motion, which offers free access to news, sports, music and entertainment clips.

Traditional British television channels have been slow to recognize the importance of video sharing apps. ITV only agreed to broadcast his programs last week

YouTube. Canal+ bought Daily Motion almost ten years ago and its monthly viewing figures are in the hundreds of millions.

So why would this ambitious French media company choose to bring its shares to London?

And how tempting is it for British investors? Canal+ has been nestled for years in Vivendi, a vast French conglomerate.

More recently, Bollore has aimed to present the group as a media and communications specialist, including companies such as advertising agency Havas and publisher Louis Hachette.

Bollore and his family own about 30 percent of the shares, but other investors continue to view the company as a mixed bag.

Vincent Bollore, 72, eventually conceded that they may have been right and opted to split the company into its constituent parts, with Havas listed in Amsterdam, the tail end of Hachette and Vivendi remaining in Paris and Canal+, the jewel to the crown, opted for London.

People close to the company cite three main reasons for the decision. Firstly, Canal+ wants to be known as an international media company, and not just a French company.

Two-thirds of subscribers come from outside France and that percentage is likely to increase over time.

London is home to many companies from abroad and institutional investors based in the city are considered to be more receptive to foreign operators than their counterparts across the Channel.

Secondly, Canal+ produces a huge number of films and TV series in English, so it made sense to advertise in an English-speaking country.

The third reason relates to MultiChoice. If that deal goes through, Canal+ would also attempt a listing on the Johannesburg stock exchange. London has an accelerated agreement with the South Africans, so a second listing would be relatively easy to arrange.

However, life in London is unlikely to be easy, at least not in the early days. Canal+ shares have had an inauspicious debut and could fall further.

The company operates in a highly competitive market. Last year it generated €6.2 billion (£5.1 billion) in revenues and €472 million in underlying profits.

A slight increase is expected this year, but the group is struggling with French authorities over a complex tax issue and some parts of its business are loss-making.

Better prospects are forecast for 2025, especially if the MultiChoice deal is successful.

Is this stock a buy? Canal+ could prove an attractive choice for investors with a long-term view.

Some brokers believe the price could double in the next year, so individual investors may be eager to snap up a few shares already. But there’s no need to rush. Canal+ will almost certainly need time to prove its qualities.