A decent proposal

21 March 2018 By Liam Proud Follow @liamwardproud

Vincent Bolloré’s media group has made a capital gain of 153 pct by selling its stake in Ubisoft, which he had long coveted. The restraint is laudable. If only he could exit as easily from an investment in Telecom Italia, where he is stuck with a paper loss and angry investors.

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French media conglomerate Vivendi said on March 20 that it was selling its 27 percent stake in Ubisoft and added it would not buy any shares in the video games group for at least five years.

Vivendi said on March 21 that it had sold 18 percent of Ubisoft’s capital to institutional investors. Ubisoft said those investors included Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and China’s Tencent. A further 3 percent will be sold to Guillemot Brothers, bringing the Ubisoft founding family’s stake to 19 percent of its capital and 25 percent of voting rights including shareholders who are aligned with the Guillemots.

Ubisoft will buy back Vivendi’s remaining holdings, worth 7 percent of its capital, with the intention of cancelling the shares.

The two companies said all transactions would take place at 66 euros per share, 4 percent below Ubisoft’s March 20 closing price. Vivendi’s will receive 2 billion euros for selling shares which cost it 794 million euros.

Ubisoft’s shares were up 4.8 percent to 71.84 euros at 0900 GMT on March 21. Vivendi shares were up 1.3 percent to 21.69 euros.

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