Vivendi today announced that it received approval from the European Commission to proceed with its proposed transaction with Lagardère.
This approval is contingent upon the completion of Vivendi’s two proposed commitments, i.e. the sale of 100% of the share capital of Editis, for which the Group entered into a put option agreement with International Media Invest a.s. on April 23, 2023, as well as the full sale of the Gala magazine, which has already attracted significant interest.
Vivendi is confident that it can finalize these two transactions by the end of October.
Vivendi welcomes this approval which will give it a whole new dimension. With the addition of the Lagardère group, Vivendi will now have some 66,000 employees compared to 38,000 at the end of December 2022, with a stronger presence in key markets such as France, the United Kingdom, Spain and the US. Annual revenues are projected to reach approximately €17 billion based on 2022 results, compared to around €10 billion today.
This transaction will align with the Group’s strategic objective to expand its international presence and will enable it to become the world’s third-largest publisher in the trade and educational markets while also integrating a new and rapidly growing activity, travel retail.
The backing of a large and stable shareholder like Vivendi will allow Lagardère to accelerate its development and provide even more opportunities to its employees around the world. The Lagardère group’s integrity will be preserved, and Arnaud Lagardère will continue to serve as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Yannick Bolloré, Chairman of the Vivendi Supervisory Board, said: “The European Commission’s decision is excellent news for Vivendi which will now be able to successfully carry out its ambitious development plan with the Lagardère group. The transaction will align with our strategic ambition to internationalize our activities and our determination to be a leading global player in culture and entertainment. We would like to thank Arnaud Lagardère for his unwavering confidence in our project, and we look forward to meeting all the group’s talents in the near future.”
Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Vivendi’s Chief Executive Officer, added: “This transaction will be profoundly transformative for our two groups. We fully intend to play to our respective strengths to write together a new page in the history of our companies. We are eager to see the teams of our two groups pool their know-how and capitalize on their respective complementarities to accelerate the development of our activities and provide exciting new perspectives to the many talents who have placed their trust in us.”
About Vivendi
Since 2014, Vivendi has been building a world-class content, media and communications group. The group owns leading, highly complementary assets in television and movies (Canal+ Group), communications (Havas), publishing (Editis), magazines
(Prisma Media), video games (Gameloft) and live entertainment and ticketing (Vivendi Village). It also owns a global digital content distribution platform (Dailymotion). Vivendi’s various businesses cohesively work together as an integrated industrial group to create greater value. Vivendi is committed to the environment and aims to contribute to a carbon-neutral world by adopting an approach aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreements. In addition, the group is helping to build more open, inclusive and responsible societies by supporting diverse and inventive creative works, promoting broader access to culture, education and its businesses, and increasing awareness of
21st-century challenges and opportunities. www.vivendi.com.
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