Pals like these

11 August 2020 By Christopher Thompson Follow @CGAThompson

The Vivendi owner has switched from supporting Arnaud Lagardere to joining forces with an activist that is trying to shake up the 2 bln euro company which owns Paris Match. That may not be enough to overhaul the arcane governance. But it could open the door to more disposals.

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Vivendi said on Aug. 11 it had formed a pact with hedge fund Amber Capital to seek four boardroom seats at Lagardere, the French media group in which they are the two largest shareholders.

“Despite their divergent views, and after the very poor results announced by Lagardere a few days ago, Vivendi and Amber Capital have decided to sign a pact," Vivendi said in a statement.

"Vivendi and Amber Capital, respectively the first and second largest shareholders of Lagardere with 23.5% and 20% of the share capital, will initiate steps in this framework with Lagardere to each seek a minority supervisory board representation of three members for Amber Capital and one member for Vivendi," Vivendi said.

Vivendi and Amber Capital said they had entered into a five-year agreement to offer each other the first right of refusal if either were to sell shares in Lagardere.

Lagardere’s share price was down 0.3% at 14.56 euros by 0900 GMT on Aug. 11. Vivendi shares were up 3.2% to 24.09 euros.

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