British regulator sets 14 pound floor under Sky shares

FILE PHOTO: The Sky logo is seen at the company's UK headquarters in west London July 25, 2014. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's takeover regulator has decided that Disney must offer 14 pounds a share for Sky if it succeeds in buying Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox , in a key ruling in the takeover battle for the broadcaster.

The price set by the Takeover Panel on Friday is the same as Fox's current offer for the 61 percent of Sky that it does not already own, which values the London-listed pay television business as a whole at 24.5 billion pounds ($32.2 billion).