(News Bulletin 247) – The conglomerate specializing in media and video games announces that it will convene its shareholders in early December to approve its proposed listing into four separate companies, first announced in December 2023.

The plan to split the various activities of Vivendi, a French media and publishing giant, will be voted on on December 9 at the general meeting, vivendi.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241015_VIV_CP_Convocation-dune-AG-le -December-9-2024.pdf”>the group announced in a press release on Tuesday.

The three companies Canal+, Havas and Louis Hachette Group aim to become independent of Vivendi. If “the split plan was approved, the first listing of the shares of the three companies would take place on December 16,” the group further indicates.

December 13 “would be the deadline by which investors wishing to participate in the split must have acquired Vivendi shares”, further specifies the same source.

The notice convening this general meeting will be published in the bulletin of obligatory legal announcements (Balo) of October 30, 2024.

“The decisions of the competent market authorities approving the prospectuses and information documents relating to the admission to trading of Canal+, Havas and Louis Hachette Group shares are expected in the days following this publication,” continues Vivendi.

The plan to split Vivendi’s various activities was announced in 2023. The operation, to take place, must receive the approval of two-thirds of the votes of shareholders.

Canal+ on the London Stock Exchange

Vivendi said in July that it was considering listing the Canal+ group on the London Stock Exchange while its communications group Havas would be listed in Amsterdam.

Canal+ would remain a company domiciled and taxed in France and could, depending on the success of its offer to purchase the South African television giant Multichoice, be subject to a second listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

The Havas communications group, which carries out the majority of its activities internationally, would be listed in the form of a joint stock company under Dutch law.

Louis Hachette Group, bringing together Vivendi’s publishing and distribution assets (Lagardère and Prisma Media), would also be listed in Paris.

Separated from these three entities, Vivendi, for its part, would remain as such, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, with a dual role consisting of supporting the transformation and expansion of its subsidiaries and continuing its activity of active management of its participations.

(With AFP)