The Financial Times
By Daniel Thomas and Anousha Sakoui in London
Vivendi is lining up bankers to review options for a sale of its controlling stake in Morocco’s largest telecom operator in a move that could raise €4bn for the struggling French media and telecoms conglomerate.
The group is reviewing its business structure after a sharp fall in its share price earlier this year and the exit of Jean-Bernard Lévy, chief executive, over disagreements in strategy and questions about the merits of maintaining a conglomerate structure.
Vivendi has begun to look at the future of the Moroccan business, according to those people with knowledge of the company’s plans. Three people said that it had begun negotiations with Lazard and Crédit Agricole to hire them to assess a possible sale of its 53 per cent stake in Maroc Telecom, Morocco’s biggest telecom group.
Maroc Telecom is Vivendi’s second-biggest earner after SFR, the French telecoms unit, and maintains a growing international business even though its domestic operations have come under pressure recently in an increasingly mature market. Vivendi declined to comment on asset sales.
The stake in the unit was valued by some financiers last week at more than €4bn. While some people with knowledge of the business believe it would be a difficult sale, pointing to political sensitivities in the country, it is expected to draw interest from other operators in the region such as Etisalat and Qtel.
Vivendi launched a strategic review of its business units in April and admitted to investors that nothing was taboo. The efforts by its unit Universal to gain approval for the acquisition of EMI have indicated that this business is outside the review, although it needs to sell off the Parlophone unit under a European competition ruling. This has been recently linked with a £350m bid from Simon Fuller, the music entrepreneur.
Vivendi has already lined up Deutsche Bank and Rothschild to find buyers for GVT, a fast-growing Brazilian fixed-line telecoms operator. GVT has attracted the attention of a number of potential buyers including Spain’s Telefónica, which insiders insist has the financial means to buy the business if there was seen to be synergies with its existing regional operations.
Industry sources say the group has also received “highly preliminary” interest for SFR. Its stake in the French telecoms operator is said to have drawn interest from private equity groups, and has been linked by market experts to trade buyers such as Vodafone. A sale to Vodafone could cause some embarrassment given the business has fallen in value since Vivendi acquired the UK group’s £7bn stake in SFR last year.
Market observers have been sceptical of any serious bid interest in SFR at this point, however, even if potential suitors predict that the situation could change should any serious bid be lodged with the group. The domestic telecoms business represents both its biggest potential means of raising money as well as its biggest challenge given a fierce price war since the arrival of Iliad’s low-cost competitor Free in a market already undergoing economic and social pressures.
The review has caused speculation about what assets could be sold and which could be first, although people with knowledge of its situation said that there was no pressure to sell any of its units.
Additional reporting by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson
