Canal Plus, the French pay-TV subsidiary of Vivendi Universal, is to be broken up and its foreign operations sold in a debt reduction exercise.
Vivendi’s chief executive, Jean-René Fourtou, has informed the French media regulator that the group plans to offload assets in Italy, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. It will then concentrate on the domestic market where it has been haemorrhaging subscribers.
Earlier this year, Vivendi wrote off E6 billion relating to Canal Plus (see Write-Offs Push Vivendi £8.3 Billion Into The Red) and the company’s chairman, Pierre Lescure was sacked.
Vivendi, which needs to meet a E3.8 billion funding gap this year, is awaiting a revised offer from News Corp for Telepiu. It expects to receive over E1 billion for the Italian pay-TV operation and in the region of E2 billion for its other foreign assets.
The break up of Canal Plus is the first stage of a restructuring programme initiated by Mr Fourtou, who is warning that further sales are inevitable. “Vivendi Universal is carrying too much debt,” he said. “No matter what, lowering the debt burden will require significant asset disposals.”
