2023-12-13 20:25:44
Published on Dec 13 2023 at 9:11 p.m.Updated Dec 13 2023 at 9:25 p.m.
Vivendi is changing its face. Considered by investors as a diversified holding company with multiple stakes, the French group active in the media has decided to assume this status. Already a shareholder of Universal Music which was listed on the stock market in 2021, the group controlled by the Bolloré family which has just become the largest shareholder of Lagardère has announced that it will study the possibility of listing two of its other assets on the stock market. , namely Havas and Canal Plus.
Suffering a conglomerate haircut, Vivendi hopes to be able to continue to exercise a form of control over groups active in different businesses (music, publishing, , pay television) whose value would be better recognized by the financial markets.
Proposed to Vivendi’s supervisory board, this idea will now be studied. The operation, which promises to be complex, might take 12 to 18 months.
If it materializes, it might in theory allow Vivendi to be the reference shareholder of companies which might also carry out acquisitions or mergers “on paper” by paying for external growth operations in shares, rather than ‘in cash. As it did with Universal Music, Vivendi might also gradually disengage from these different companies.
Financial Strategist
Long confined to the French pay television market and competing with the rise of players like Netflix in streaming, the Canal+ group has for several years engaged in a strategy of internationalization and digitalization of its distribution methods. Its portfolio now reaches more than 25 million subscribers in nearly 50 countries. After acquiring M7, then SPI, the company took strategic stakes in companies such as Multichoice (in Africa), VIU and Viaplay (in Asia) and wants to continue its internationalization.
A major player in in France, Havas needs to continue to grow and refine its international network. Even though it has a strong presence in the United States, this player in the market must face both Anglo-Saxon giants and a French competitor, Publicis, which was able to take the shift towards digital services and whose performance has been recognized by the financial markets.
Faithful to his reputation as an industrialist as well as a financial strategist, Vincent Bolloré, who with his sons manages the holdings of a family empire, once once more surprises the markets which were rather expecting the Breton to buy back the entire capital of Vivendi of which he is the largest shareholder to take this conglomerate off the stock market. If this operation goes through, Vivendi would for the moment continue to directly manage a business such as magazine publishing (Prisma) but would above all be a holding company managing various holdings.
1702499590
#Vivendi #change #face #dividing #entities
