(BFM Bourse) – Via one of his many companies, the businessman sold a significant number of Vivendi shares on the market, according to a notice published by the Autorité des marchés financiers. This undermines speculation of a takeover bid by the Bolloré group on Vivendi.
Vivendi is heckled on the stock market by sales of shares of the man who has profoundly transformed it in recent years. The action of the media group, video games and communication wavers this Tuesday on the Parisian square, falling by 6.8% around 10:20 am, to 8.80 euros.
Several analysts polled by BFM Bourse link the fall of the title to sales of shares by Vincent Bolloré, who is now adviser to the chairman of the management board of Vivendi, Arnaud de Puyfontaine.
Via his company Compagnie de Cornouaille, the famous businessman sold a total of 1.55 million Vivendi shares on the market at a weighted average price of 9.5728 euros, or just under 15 million euros. in total, according to an opinion from the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) published Monday evening and sent by Vincent Bolloré on May 19.
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A speculative bias undermined
The amount sold represents a drop of water given Vivendi’s market capitalization of around 9.5 billion euros. But it must be understood that these sales mechanically reduce the participation of the concert formed by all the companies linked to Vincent Bolloré, including the Bolloré group.
But many analysts and investors have speculated that the Bolloré group could launch a takeover bid (OPA) on Vivendi in the fall. The Bolloré family business currently owns just under 30% of Vivendi, with just over 28% held by Compagnie de Cornouaille, a subsidiary of the Bolloré Group.
This participation will automatically increase with the cancellations of shares that the company intends to carry out. Vivendi currently owns around 7% of its own shares, or 78.19 million shares, and must cancel a total of 42 million in the second half of 2023, including 37 million in September. The consequence is that in September, the participation of the Bolloré group should exceed the threshold of 30%, threshold from which a shareholder has the obligation to file a takeover bid (OPA).
This speculative scenario has been reinforced by the recent plan to sell Bolloré’s logistics division for just under 4.7 billion euros to the shipping group CMA CGM. After this sale “Bolloré would be rich in cash, which raises the question of what he could do with this cash, against Vivendi”, underlined for example Barclays. This sale will strengthen the already well-stocked finances of the Bolloré group which, at the end of December 2022, already had net cash of 1.21 billion euros and total liquidity of 12 billion euros. This while Vivendi weighs less than 10 billion euros on the stock market.
But the sales of shares made by Vincent Bolloré therefore undermine this speculative character. “It is a clearly negative signal for this scenario of a takeover bid by the Bolloré group in September, which remains the main interest of Vivendi shareholders, hence the fall in the stock this morning”, underlines a financial analyst.
Nevertheless for the latter, the scenario of a takeover bid should not be ruled out. “We forget that Bolloré’s takeover bid for Vivendi may very well not be carried out only in cash but also with a mixture of cash and Bolloré shares, especially since the Bolloré share has clearly outperformed the Vivendi share”, explains the analyst in question. This specialist notes that the general meeting of the Bolloré group, which will take place tomorrow, includes resolutions allowing capital increases to be carried out.
Julien Marion – ©2023 BFM Bourse
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