Vivendi is studying a plan to split its Canal and Havas subsidiaries

Having barely swallowed the Lagardère group a few days ago, the big maneuvers are already beginning for Vivendi. The media, communications and entertainment group, controlled by the Bolloré family, announced this Wednesday evening that it was studying a “project to split its activities into several listed entities”. In question ? The discount of Vivendi on the stock market. The conglomerate, which is preparing to return to the CAC40 next Monday, is today valued at 9.1 billion euros. “Since the listing of Universal Music Group two years ago, the discount has been significant,” explains Jérôme Bodin, financial analyst at Oddo BHF. The true value of all Vivendi assets is not reflected.” Between the study of the project and its possible realization, a period of one and a half years could pass, according to our information.

Vivendi feels the need to rationalize everything by reorganizing its empire by profession, most of which have reached a moment of transformation. This proposed split would be structured in particular around Canal, Havas and an investment company including its majority stake in the Lagardère group. The objective is to give the Canal group, its major audiovisual asset, the capacity to exploit other consolidation opportunities on an international scale. Canal is now home to the only French platform capable of competing with American streaming giants like Netflix or Disney.

For its part, the communications giant Havas (more than 23,000 employees across around a hundred countries) displays very solid financial results compared to its international peers such as the English WPP or the American Omnicom, in a turbulent economic period. . If Havas has increased its targeted acquisitions since the pandemic, it is impossible for it to carry out structuring operations (as the French Publicis did a few years ago, now praised by the financial markets) or “paper” mergers. » by paying for external growth operations in shares, rather than in cash.

Also read: Vivendi takes control of Lagardère: “This is the biggest change in dimension for our group”

Beyond the listing of Canal and Havas, Vivendi is considering the creation of an investment company holding listed and unlisted financial interests. It would then include its press group Prisma Media (Voici, Femme Actuelle, Geo, Télé-Loisirs, Capital, etc.) as well as its 59.71% stake in the Lagardère group, which notably houses Hachette Livre and the Travel Retail activity. . This company would also hold Vivendi's stakes in Universal Music Group (9.98%), FL Entertainment (19.21%), MediaForEurope (19.79%), Multichoice Group (nearly 30%) and even the painful Italian adventure Telecom Italia (23.75%), recently reclassified as financial participation.

Vivendi thus hopes to be able to continue to exercise a form of control over groups active in different professions (music, publishing, advertising, pay television, etc.) whose value would be better recognized by the markets. “It’s also a way of maintaining control of the group while seeking cash on the markets to get out of debt at a lower cost,” estimates an analyst.

Beyond feasibility, the group will above all study the financial and fiscal interests of such a project for its shareholders... It did not specify where the different quotations could take place if the project was intended to be carried out successfully. “An update on the progress of the study will be made in due time,” the press release simply states. With this nocturnal announcement, Breton patriarch Vincent Bolloré once again surprises financial analysts and many investors, who were rather expecting that the Bolloré group (reference shareholder, with 29.4% of the capital and 29.43 % of voting rights) buys the entire capital of Vivendi to take the conglomerate off the stock market. The year 2024 promises to be eventful.