M6 sells Canal+ stake

RTL-owned French broadcaster M6 exercised a put option to sell its 5.1% stake in Canal+ to majority shareholder Vivendi for E384m.
This means Vivendi, which previously said it was interested in acquiring the stake, now owns 80% of the satellite pay-TV…

RTL-owned French broadcaster M6 exercised a put option to sell its 5.1% stake in Canal+ to majority shareholder Vivendi for E384m.

This means Vivendi, which previously said it was interested in acquiring the stake, now owns 80% of the satellite pay-TV platform.

M6 has not said what it plans to do with the lump sum. The group had a debt of only E38.3m at the end of February 2009, with an equity capital of E795m.

The group is the latest minority shareholder to yield its stake to Vivendi, following TF1’s sale of its 9.9% stake for E744m last December.

The last remaining shareholder, Lagardere, has also expressed its intention to divest its 20% stake in Canal +. However, it says a sale would depend on the price that Vivendi is willing to pay, with Lagardere suggesting it could fetch between E1bn and E1.5bn. It has also suggested that it may decide to list the stake.