French communications group Vivendi is still keen to buy out Vodafone’s 44% stake in French mobile operator SFR, CEO Jean-Bernard Levy has said.
Speaking at the company’s half-year results announcement, he said “It has always been a strategic objective…
French communications group Vivendi is still keen to buy out Vodafone’s 44% stake in French mobile operator SFR, CEO Jean-Bernard Levy has said.
Speaking at the company’s half-year results announcement, he said “It has always been a strategic objective of ours to hold 100% of our French telecoms business”. He added that the company would have plenty of funds on hand once the US$5.8bn sale of its 20% stake in NBC Universal to GE completes.
Speaking to TelecomFinance, a spokesperson for Vivendi emphasised that there were at present no talks underway between Vivendi and Vodafone.
A spokesperson for Vodafone declined to comment on the company’s plans for SFR, except to acknowledge CEO Vittorio Colao’s comments over the summer that he did not wish to manage minority investments. The spokesperson said the company did not wish to discuss minority investments on a country by country basis.
Vodafone is widely expected to sell off its minority stakes in Polkomtel (24.4%) and China Mobile (3.2%), although plans for its stake in Verizon Wireless (45%) are less clear.
Vivendi reported revenue of E13.982bn for the first half of the year, a 6.1% rise on the same period last year. EBITDA was up 11.9% at E3.243bn, with net income having increased 4% to E1.526bn.
The company credited its telecoms subsidiaries, SFR and Brazilian unit GVT in particular, for the group’s strong performance.
SFR’s revenue was up 1.8% to E6.248bn, and its EBITDA rose 6.6% to E2.114bn.