Major Vivendi investor set to leave board

Telecom Italia’s largest shareholder Vivendi announced French billionaire Vincent Bollore would step down from its supervisory board in April, with his son lined-up to replace him.

Vivendi shareholders have been asked to vote for Cyrille Bollore to take his father’s role at a meeting in mid-April. The move comes a year after Vincent Bollore was replaced by another of his sons, Yannick as chairman of the supervisory board.

Bollore senior’s departure is scheduled to take place two weeks after a crunch meeting of Telecom Italia shareholders, where Vivendi is set to put its case for the removal of five directors at the operator.

The saga over the make-up of Telecom Italia’s senior management has been going on for months. Vivendi lost control of the company’s board in 2018 has since written down the value of its stake in the operator during fierce criticism of its executive team.

Universal sale
Vivendi’s Telecom Italia stake is not the only part of its business currently under the spotlight, with the media company in the process of trying to sell 50 per cent of Universal Music Group.

In a statement within its annual financial results statement, the company said the process was “moving forward” with structural changes ahead of the sale now complete. It plans to appoint banks to assist with divestment of the share in the coming weeks.

Vivendi, which owns a wide range of interests in the media and communication sectors, reported net income of €1.16 billion for 2018. The figure was down 11 per cent year-on-year for a number of reasons, notably a one-off tax benefit in 2017 and currency fluctuations.
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