In a return worthy of “Succession” patriarch Logan Roy, the French billionaire Vicente Bolloré has emerged from fictional retirement to engineer a strategic overhaul of his publicly traded media empire, Vivendi.
After apparently handing the reins of Vivendi to his sons Yannick and Cyrille last year, Bolloré stepped in again with a plan to split the French conglomerate into three businesses: pay-TV group Canal+, advertising brand Havas and a vehicle investment composed of the Lagardere Group. Each of them would be listed separately on the Paris Stock Exchange.
Vivendi's supervisory board has approved the exploration of this three-way split which, if carried out, will see the Vivendi brand disappear along with Bolloré's initial “synergy” strategy, which was its mantra when it became the largest shareholder of the conglom in 2012. The upcoming change has been greeted with enthusiasm, as the valuation of Vivendi shares rose 10% to 9.98 euros per share.
Over the past 10 years, Vivendi's annual turnover fell from €29 billion to €10 billion after it divested high-profile assets including Universal Music Group. But shareholders, including Bolloré, have become richer in the process. Bolloré struck a major coup by taking Universal Music Group public and giving Vivendi shareholders 60% ownership of the music powerhouse whose roster of talent includes Taylor Swift and Drake. On its first day on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, UMG shares soared 39% to a valuation of almost $53 billion.
The idea behind splitting Vivendi into separate businesses is to help Bolloré and Vivendi shareholders seek a higher valuation for Canal+ and Havas and better leverage the growth of these assets.
"Since the distribution and listing of Universal Music Group in 2021, Vivendi has endured a significantly high conglomerate discount, substantially reducing its valuation and thus limiting its ability to carry out external growth transactions for its subsidiaries," Vivendi said in announcing that I was reflecting on this. division into three parts.
Under the reform explored, Vivendi shareholders would have stakes in three thriving businesses instead of one. Pay-TV group Canal+ would appear as a single banner comprising Dailymotion and GVA, as well as South African group Multichoice Group, Hong Kong-based OTT service Viu International and Viaplay, the Scandinavian streaming platform.
The second entity will revolve around Havas, a leading advertising and marketing brand, while the third will be an (unnamed) investment vehicle composed of Lagardere, the French media, publishing and travel retail conglomerate, Prisma, the press group, the video game brand Gameloft and stakes in Prisa in Spain and 10% in UMG.
The Canal+ Group, led by Maxime Saada, has expanded internationally through a series of acquisitions and currently has a subscriber base of more than 25 million in almost 50 countries. Francois Godard, of Enders Analysis, anticipates some synergies and/or brand changes between some streaming entities in the Canal+ vertical. Canal+ is only on track to acquire France's second-largest pay-TV group, OCS, and its film/TV production and distribution arm, Orange Studio, in a deal currently being examined by the antitrust board. Canal+ Group is also the parent company of Studiocanal, the international film and television company behind the “Paddington” franchise. The brand has dozens of production labels in key markets and direct distribution operations in France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia/New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Havas brings together more than 23,000 employees in more than 100 countries. The investment company, Vivendi said, would "actively support the strategic development of its portfolio companies... through a specific reinvestment policy." The three companies would be attached to a subsidiary of the Bolloré family holding company.
