Bolloré : thoughts following the green light for the Vivendi spin offs

CIAM: much ado about nothing!

So the Vivendi spin offs got a very easy green light from its shareholders.

• 97,57% were in favor for the Canal + spin off.

• 97,58% were in favor for the Louis Hachette Group SA spin off.

• 97,61% were in favor of the Havas N.V spin off.

So the CIAM campaign against the spin offs (and the fact that the spin offs are spread out a bit everywhere: London, Holland, Euronext Growth) was a failure.

But is it a surprise?

No it isn’t as I can’t see what else could be done to reduce the discount to the sum of part valuation of Vivendi.

Remember what had be done before by Bolloré:

• Regular buybacks

• Special dividend

• Regular dividend

• UMG spin off

Yet after all that, the discount remained high.

At one point if the market is not going to reduce the discount spin offs is the right move. One cannot say that capital allocation is not good…

Sure, it helps Bolloré keep control without being the majority shareholder but once again, one cannot say that they are not proactive.

So what does it mean for the galaxie Bolloré shareholders?