By Ruth Bender
PARIS-- Vivendi SA's chairman and single-largest shareholder,
Vincent Bolloré, is sitting on a multibillion-dollar reserve that
continues to swell from asset sales. Now a big question is
swirling: What will he do with the company's cash?
Mr. Bolloré, who is known as one of France's savviest but most
unpredictable businessmen, is the crucial player in defining the
further evolution of Vivendi, a once-sprawling conglomerate that in
recent years slimmed down to two media businesses: California-based
Universal Music Group and French pay-television provider Canal Plus
Group.
Last week, Mr. Bolloré's family business raised its stake in
Vivendi to 8.2% from 5.2%, tightening the billionaire's grip on the
company he has gradually taken hold of since entering with a small
stake a little more than two years ago.
Faced with the challenge of reviving growth, Vivendi has sold
off assets that accounted for more than half of its revenue,
including videogames maker Activision Blizzard and
telecommunications companies in France and Morocco, moving toward a
much smaller and more media-centric version of its former disparate
self. Since Mr. Bolloré became chairman last June, Vivendi has
continued to slim down, amassing a cash pile that will soon total
roughly EUR10 billion ($11 billion) after the company returns money
to shareholders.
A person close to the company said Vivendi will likely wait
until it has closed all asset sales before it begins the company's
reconstruction, around this summer.
"There is probably only one man who knows what the future of
Vivendi looks like and that's him," said another person close to
Vivendi. "I can't read him, but I am convinced he has a very clear
idea of where he is going."
Mr. Bolloré, who declined to comment for this article, has given
few hints about Vivendi's future.
Last June, he pledged to create closer cooperation between
Vivendi's units that do very different things to create an
"industrial integrated content group." He has pointed to Africa as
one area of such closer ties, a continent where Mr. Bolloré could
leverage his vast experience. His family business Groupe Bolloré
controls logistics networks in nearly 50 African countries.
While such closer ties could create interesting opportunities--a
first example was the co-production of an African TV talent-scout
show--many analysts question how this can become a significant
source of revenue.
Mr. Bolloré has also said he wants Vivendi to become a French
version of German media group Bertelsmann SE by bringing together
all sorts of media in French-speaking countries, sparking more
speculation about what Vivendi might buy.
The lack of clarity about Vivendi's future has frustrated some
investors, especially last week as some of them struggled to
understand why Vivendi decided to sell its minority stake in French
telecom group Numericable-SFR SA at a price many deemed too
low.
"There is a sense that Vivendi is now being run in a less
transparent way, with one investor making decisions based on
information which we don't have," said Claudio Aspesi, senior media
researcher at Bernstein Research. "Mr. Bolloré's track record in
media investments is excellent. But right now, no one knows how he
will be successful and over what period of time."
Chief Executive Arnaud de Puyfontaine last month called on
investors to be patient, quipping that "Rome wasn't built in a
day." He said acquisitions were possible, but only under "strict
financial discipline."
In more than three decades of investing in prominent French
companies, Mr. Bolloré has made a fortune by seizing control of
often poorly run businesses, sometimes in a quick raid, sometimes
in a long slow immersion.
"People say he is a corporate raider but I don't think that's
true. He is a very clever, long-term business builder," said Martin
Sorrell, chief executive of U.K advertising company WPP PLC, a
rival to France-based Havas SA, which Mr. Bolloré controls.
Some of Mr. Bolloré's early moves at Vivendi bear resemblance to
how he shook up Havas, his first major venture into the media
world.
In 2004, he bought a small stake in Havas, the beginning of a
journey that led to him taking control of about 82% earlier this
year through a share-swap deal. Mr. Bolloré quickly built up his
stake, challenged the company's strategy and soon after became
chairman.
"Veni, vidi, vici, that is Bolloré," said Fernando Rodés, who
was CEO of Havas from 2006 to 2011.
Once in control, Mr. Bolloré overhauled the business. He pulled
a plug on acquisitions and cut costs to pay down debt, set precise
goals and targets, oversaw almost all financial-committee meetings
and charmed companies to win new clients, recalls Mr. Rodés.
"It took him only a few months to learn the workings of
advertising. Then, he picked up the phone and called every single
client, big or small," he said. Mr. Rodés's family owns a small
stake in Groupe Bolloré.
Havas clawed its way back to growth, with its share price
roughly doubling since 2004. In 2013, Mr. Bolloré handed the
chairmanship to his son Yannick to focus on his next project:
SHYVivendi.
It took Mr. Bolloré less than two years to effectively control
Vivendi with a 5% stake. He bought his entry ticket on friendly
grounds in 2012 by exchanging his TV operations for Vivendi stock.
He obtained a board seat and started maneuvers from the sideline
that led to a boardroom clash with then-Chairman Jean-René Fourtou
over who should run the company, according to people familiar with
the situation. The two men quickly settled their dispute and Mr.
Fourtou handed over the chairmanship to Mr. Bolloré last
summer.
Mr. Bolloré today spends most of his time on Vivendi, where he
is involved in all parts of the business, according to people
familiar with the matter.
At Canal Plus, he has set up monthly meetings to review the
latest results and projects, a step up from quarterly meetings
before his tenure, some people said. Mr. Bolloré since 2012 has
also regularly flown to Los Angeles to meet with Universal Music
group executives, including CEO Lucian Grainge and nearly all the
heads of the group's individual record labels, other people said.
Mr. Grainge's team has received "very firm indications" from Mr.
Bolloré that he has no desire to sell the record company, according
to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr. Bolloré has also brought in several allies, including cinema
producer Tarak Ben Ammar and senior Havas executive Dominique
Delport, who were named to the board last month.
People who have done business with Mr. Bolloré describe him as
charming and shrewd, disciplined and controlling. They say he has a
great talent for quickly seizing people's psychology, knows how to
surround himself with those who won't challenge his decisions too
much and trusts only a handful of confidants.
"Mr. Bolloré is known for taking everyone by surprise, so I
don't know it makes much sense trying to guess his next move," said
Charles Bedouelle, an analyst at BNP Paribas. "But the more he owns
the better, as he will be more likely to create real money."
Mr. Rodés is convinced that waiting for further changes can pay
off. "He is a man of mystery, but also a winning Roman
warrior."
Hannah Karp in Los Angeles contributed to this article.
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