French media and telecoms group Vivendi aims ultimately to own 100% of pay-TV company Canal + France and mobile operator SFR, chairman Jean-Bernard Levy said in an interview in Les Echos.
Last month, the Lagardere group, which holds 20% of Canal +…
French media and telecoms group Vivendi aims ultimately to own 100% of pay-TV company Canal + France and mobile operator SFR, chairman Jean-Bernard Levy said in an interview in Les Echos.
Last month, the Lagardere group, which holds 20% of Canal + France, submitted an IPO registration document for the DTH operator to French financial markets regulator AMF.
In the interview with Les Echos, Levy said that talks to buy Lagardere’s stake have failed because of a difference in price expectation, but pointed out that Lagardere is able to stop the listing process at any point.
Vivendi is reportedly advised by Nomura and Societe Generale, while Lagardere is advised by BNP Paribas and JPMorgan.
Under a 2007 shareholder agreement, Lagardere 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.
On the other hand, Levy declined to confirmed whether Vivendi was currently in talks to buy Vodafone’s 44% in SFR but said that having full control of the operator would allow the simplification of his group’s structure and more flexibility since at the moment, SFR cannot expand internationally.
Last year, Vodafone said it was looking to offload several minority investments in foreign companies in order to return money to its investors.
Levy reportedly said that the finalisation of the sale of NBC Universal and the end of a dispute in Poland have together allowed Vivendi to reduce its pro forma debt to E3.9bn, giving his group some leeway.
Last January, Vivendi raised US$3.8bn from the sale of its stake in NBCU and E1.4bn as a settlement of legal disputes with Elektrim and Deutsche Telekom over the ownership of Polish mobile operator PTC.