Orange Considering Stake in Vivendi's Canal Plus -- 2nd Update
December 09 2016 - 2:47PM
Dow Jones News
By Nick Kostov
PARIS -- Orange SA, a major French telecoms company, has held
talks about investing in Vivendi's pay-TV unit Canal Plus,
according to people familiar with the matter.
No structure for the deal has been decided and the companies
might instead agree to a partnership, the sources said. If there is
an agreement, there is also no guarantee antitrust regulators would
approve it.
On Thursday, Orange CEO Stéphane Richard said he was open to
buying Canal Plus.
"If Canal Plus were up for sale tomorrow, Orange would
definitely look into it. Obviously," Mr. Richard told reporters on
the fringes of a news conference in Morocco on Thursday. "There are
many reasons that suggest forging closer ties."
Shares of Vivendi closed up 6.5% at 18.89 euros in Paris, while
Orange fell 1.7% to EUR13.50.
Paris-based Orange, France's largest telecoms group, has seen
margins squeezed at home by years of tough competition and is
particularly interested in Canal Plus' businesses in Poland and
Africa where both companies have been expanding.
Vivendi, meanwhile, has been looking to foster relationships
with large telecoms companies to better distribute its content.
The talks don't involve Vivendi taking a stake in Orange; and
Telecom Italia, in which Vivendi holds a stake, isn't part of the
discussions, one of the people said.
"If the project is too complicated it reduces the chance of a
deal," this person said.
Investors and analysts have long been speculating about a deal
between Vivendi and Orange. On Friday, Natixis analyst Jerome Bodin
said that investing in Canal Plus could smooth the path for Vivendi
to acquire a stake in Orange.
Orange earlier this year failed to negotiate a EUR10 billion
deal for Bouygues Telecom that would have reduced the number of
network providers in France to three from four.
A spokeswoman for Orange declined to comment. A Vivendi
spokesman also declined to comment.
Write to Nick Kostov at Nick.Kostov@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 09, 2016 14:32 ET (19:32 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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