Bollore raises Vivendi stake again as shareholder battle looms

Tycoon Vincent Bollore raised his stake in French media group Vivendi for the third time in a month to reach 12 per cent as he gears up for a fight with activist shareholders.

To solidify his hold on the group, Bollore – Vivendi’s chairman and largest shareholder – plans to keep buying shares and may seek more board seats, according to a disclosure to the French markets authority.

US hedge fund P Schoenfeld Asset Management (PSAM), which says it owns 0.8 per cent of Vivendi, wants shareholders to back two resolutions at an April 17th annual meeting that would require Vivendi to return €9 billion to investors after selling four of its six businesses.

Another fund wants to prevent Vivendi from putting into place double voting rights for holders who own shares for more than two years, as French law allows.

Investor advisory group Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS) said Vivendi shareholders should vote against the PSAM proposal. PSAM's proposal "gives too little credit" to Vivendi's recent performance and its new management team under Mr Bollore with regard to capital allocation, it added.

The fight is over the future of Vivendi, which has been through a radical slim-down in the past two years under Mr Bollore. At issue is how it spends the proceeds from the asset sales, the group’s strategy, and how much power Mr Bollore should have versus other shareholders.

Having exited telecoms and video games, Mr Bollore and Vivendi management now want to build the group up into a stronger media group by adding to its Universal Music Group and French pay-TV operator Canal Plus, and making acquisitions.

PSAM founder Peter Schoenfeld told Les Echos newspaper he was "optimistic" of winning the support of a majority of shareholders but that it was still too early to say.

PSAM has accused the company of giving too much leeway to Mr Bollore to boost his stake at “undervalued prices”. It has also urged the company to consider spinning off part or all of its Universal Music Group. – (Reuters)