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Universal owner confirms plans to offload telecoms business
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 27 November 2013
As expected, Universal Music parent company Vivendi has confirmed it will spin off its French telecommunications business SFR so that it is listed separately on the stock market.
That will leave the company with two key assets, Universal Music and Canal+, plus a smaller interest in the Brazilian telecoms market and a minority stake in the Activision gaming firm. It’s thought that a Vivendi divested of SFR would then focus on media and entertainment, with Arnaud de Puyfontaine, currently CEO of Hearst Magazines UK, set to join the firm in the new year as Senior Executive VP responsible for media and content.
According to the Financial Times, Vivendi’s supervisory board has now approved the spinning off of SFR. That news has come a few weeks earlier than expected, though the move has been anticipated for sometime, and the company admitted it was actively considering the split back in September.
Vivendi also confirmed yesterday that, once the split has occurred, Vincent Bolloré would take over as the entertainment company’s Chairman, replacing incumbent Jean-Rene Fourtou.
Bolloré, the biggest shareholder in Vivendi, controlling 5%, became Vice-Chairman in September. He had been tipped to replace Fourtou for a while, though was more recently linked to the firm’s currently vacant CEO role. Either way, it seems likely that Bolloré and de Puyfontaine could be spearheading the next stage in Vivendi’s development by late 2014, if not sooner.
Vivendi will now submit its plans to both regulatory authorities and its shareholders.
