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Business News Labels & Publishers
Vivendi financials impress despite some slips
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 17 November 2011
Universal Music owner Vivendi saw sales and profits decline year-on-year in their third quarter, though nevertheless impressed investment types with their latest financials, partly by scoring better than expected operating profits, and also by reporting that so far this year overall profits are up, in no small part thanks to the good performance of the group’s Activision Blizzard video gaming unit. Nevertheless, Vivendi chiefs warned that year end profits would likely be less than originally expected because of increasing corporation tax rates in France.
In its latest financial report, Vivendi admitted that its acquisition last week of the EMI record labels for £1.2 billion left “very, very little headroom on the balance sheet” and, given the company has no desire to increase its debt levels, no other big acquisitions are likely in the near future. Though, as previously reported, Vivendi chiefs have denied that this week’s surprise sale of 3% of the French conglom’s stake in Activision was motivated by the need to boost cash reserves to protect their credit rating in light of the big EMI deal.
Universal Music also delivered nominal growth for Vivendi, which is good news, even if it is slightly overshadowed by the storming success of the gaming business.
