French satellite broadcaster Canal+ France has submitted a registration document for an IPO of the company on the NYSE Euronext exchange in Paris.
The IPO reportedly just concerns the 20% stake in the DTH provider held by the French media company…
French satellite broadcaster Canal+ France has submitted a registration document for an IPO of the company on the NYSE Euronext exchange in Paris.
The IPO reportedly just concerns the 20% stake in the DTH provider held by the French media company Lagardere. This would confirm Lagardere’s statements in late 2010 that it planned to list its stake in the second quarter of 2011.
It also looks set to reinforce tensions between Lagardere and the French media/telecoms group Vivendi, which owns the remaining 80% of Canal+ France through its subsidiary, the Canal+ Group.
Vivendi would not comment on this latest move, but one of its priorities is still to control 100% of its French subsidiaries.
In a statement yesterday, it released strong results for both Canal+ France and the whole Canal+ Group. Canal+ France’s 2010 revenue was E3.96bn, up 3.1% from 2009, and over the same period it had increased its total number of subscribers by 335,000 to over 11 million. Its EBITA had increased 11% to E616m in 2010.
Meanwhile, Canal+ Group’s revenue for 2010 was E4.71bn (compared to E4.55bn in 2009) and EBITA had increased by 5.8% to E690m in 2010.
Lagardere has a shareholder agreement from 2007 that gives it the option to sell its 20% holding in Canal+ to Vivendi between 15 March and 15 April every year until 2014. The agreement also allows Lagardere to list the stake if Vivendi refuses to buy.
In July, Lagardere said that it had started the process of listing its stake after it had failed to come to an agreement with Vivendi.
Vivendi has been widely reported to be attempting to buy the 20% stake over the last year, although it would not confirm the rumours.
SatelliteFinance reported in November that Lagardere had been hoping to get E1.5bn for the 20% stake from Vivendi. Earlier in the year, Vivendi was said to have offered just under E1.3bn.
If Lagardere is attempting to get a higher value by floating the stake, it may be thwarted by the size of Vivendi’s own stake, which would leave any incoming investors with only a limited say in the strategy of the company.
According to a Reuters report last April, Credit Suisse analysts valued the 20% stake at E1.4bn, while CM-CIC analysts had valued it at E1.05bn. Neither Credit Suisse nor CM-CIC replied to questions before the press deadline.
E1.5bn would be a value that broadly equates to the amounts Vivendi has spent for other stakes in Canal+ France.
In November 2009, for instance, it agreed to acquire the 9.9% stake in Canal+ France held by TF1 for E744m.
However, according to Reuters, TF1 had an option that guaranteed a minimum price for its stake. Lagardere’s shareholder agreement reportedly does not have such a minimum price attached.
Lagardere said that it could not comment on the listing because of stock market regulations.
Both Lagardere and Vivendi have been involved in significant transactions recently that may offer the chance to break the deadlock, particularly if Vivendi has additional funds that it is prepared to use for acquisitions.
Lagardere agreed to sell its international magazine business to Hearst Corporation for E651m at the end of January. Meanwhile, Vivendi announced on January 26 that it had sold its remaining 12.34% stake in the US broadcaster NBC Universal to General Electric for US$3.8bn.
In a statement after the sale to General Electric, Vivendi’s CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said: “Vivendi now has control of all of its assets and is fully focussed on pursuing its profitable growth strategy.”
