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Vivendi plans to list its French TV business Canal+ in London as part of plans to break up the conglomerate controlled by billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
The decision to list Canal+ in London reflects the group’s increasingly international operations, Vivendi said on Monday. Canal+ recently agreed to buy MultiChoice, Africa’s largest pay-television operator.
Vivendi, which is listed in Paris, said Havas, its advertising business, would move to the Amsterdam stock exchange as the group proceeds to end a conglomerate structure that had depressed its valuation.
Vivendi said its position as a conglomerate was “substantially reducing its valuation and thereby limited its ability to carry out external growth transactions for its subsidiaries”.
The arrival of Canal+ on the London Stock Exchange would represent a coup for a market that has struggled more than its rivals during a lengthy global drought in initial public offerings.
While Canal+ has deep ties to France, almost two-thirds of its subscribers are now from outside the country. Canal+ will remain incorporated in France and is expected to have a secondary listing in Johannesburg, where MultiChoice is based.
The final part of Bolloré’s three-pronged break-up will bring together Vivendi’s publishing operations, including its 63.5 per cent shareholding in Lagardère and Prisma Media, into a new company to be called Louis Hachette Group.
It would be listed on the Euronext Growth market in Paris, with a separate listing of subsidiary Lagardère on Euronext Paris. Vivendi said all three companies would keep decision-making and their operational teams in France.
