French media group Lagardère has announced it was pushing hard to list its 20% stake in French DTH provider Canal+ before the end of the year or at the beginning of 2011.
During the first-half results conference call, the company explained that because…
French media group Lagardère has announced it was pushing hard to list its 20% stake in French DTH provider Canal+ before the end of the year or at the beginning of 2011.
During the first-half results conference call, the company explained that because Canal+ has not been public for almost 10 years, launching the IPO will take some time. If Lagardère fails to list the stake before the end of the year, it will then have to wait until March 2011 in order to provide investors with recent financial results.
Lagardère’s assets into Canal+ were valued at about ?1.5bn, according to the company. The remaining 80% is held by French media conglomerate Vivendi, which recently posted improved revenues of ?13.98bn for H1 2010, up 6.1% compared with the first half of 2009.
During the conference call, Lagardère confirmed that Vivendi did not make a proposal, saying it preferred to keep its money to invest in telcos, according to Lagardère’s managing board.
Lagardère therefore decided to pursue with an IPO. Under a 2007 shareholder agreement, Lagardère has a put an option to sell its 20% holding in Canal + to Vivendi between 15 March and 15 April every year until 2014 or list it if Vivendi refuses to buy it.
Lagardère has been hoping to get around ?1.5bn for its 20% from Vivendi although back in April, Credit Suisse valued it closer to ?1.2bn. A few months ago, Vivendi was said to have offered Lagardère just under ?1.3bn but Lagardère is reportedly hoping to achieve a higher valuation through the public markets Over the past year, Vivendi increased in stake in Canal+, acquiring the 9.9% stake held by national broadcaster TF1 for ?744m and the 5.1% holding of RTL-owned French broadcaster M6 for ?384m. For H1 2010, Canal+ Group revenues reached ?2.3bn, a 3.1% increase on H1 2009 results.
Lagardère confirmed that banks have been hired for the Canal+ IPO without disclosing names. The company did not return phone calls by press time.
Vivendi set for acquisitions after NBCU stake sale
Vivendi has finalised the sale of a 7.66% stake in US media group NBC Universal to General Electric for US$2bn.
The company said it would sell its remaining 12.34% holding for US$3.8bn following the completion of the GE-Comcast transaction. The question now is how Vivendi will spend the proceeds.
Earlier this month, Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said that taking full control of French mobile operator SFR had always been a strategic objective for his company, which recently posted improved revenues of ?13.98bn for H1 2010, up 6.1% compared with the first half of 2009. For his part, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said over the summer that his company did not wish to manage minority investments.
Market specialists believe that Vivendi, which currently holds 56% of SFR, could buy Vodafone’s 44% in the mobile operator before the end of the year.
During the 2010 half-year earnings call, early September, Levy also said that the company’s objective remained “full ownership of our France-based entities”, which include SFR but also DTH provider Canal+, in which it already owns 80%.
Levy added that “there may well be opportunities in the near future”.
When contacted, a Vivendi spokesman declined to comment further on a potential acquisition of Canal+ by Vivendi.
