Restructuring will cost at Canal Plus
January 15, 2016
By Chris Forrester
Media giant Vivendi will unveil its latest Q4 results next month on February 18th after the market has closed for the day.
Equity analysts at Deutsch Bank, in looking at Vivendi’s key divisions, say that while ‘Music’ (in the shape of Universal Music Group) has been helped by Taylor Swift’s latest album release last year which outsold Justin Bieber some five-fold, there has still been plenty of competition although the music catalogue overall has been aided by ‘long tail’ sales.
But the bank suggests that last November’s Paris terror attacks will have an impact on viewing as will competition for Vivendi’s pay-TV channels from the Rugby World Cup. Nevertheless, Deutsch Bank says “With continued strong growth in pay-TV International and Mainland France expected to show no deterioration from [Q3] trends (-2 per cent), our Canal Plus forecasts for Income from operations are unchanged. But for EBITA, we factor in a €25 million restructuring charge following the management change in September.”
Meanwhile Vivendi has announced that it has sold its remaining 41.5 million Activision Blizzard shares (representing 5.7 per cent of the video game publisher’s common shares).
The decision to implement these transactions was taken in view of the evolution of the Activision Blizzard stock price, said Vivendi in a statement. The hedge was set up in June 2015 and covered 100 per cent of the value of the Activision Blizzard shares, denominated in US dollars. It was accomplished using a zero-cost collar with a maximum term of 18 months.