Mediaset Asks Court to Enforce Deal to Sell Pay-TV Unit to Vivendi
August 19 2016 - 2:32PM
Dow Jones News
By Giada Zampano
ROME--Italian broadcaster Mediaset SpA on Friday said it has
filed a request with a Milan tribunal seeking enforcement of a
contract to sell is pay-TV unit to French media giant Vivendi
SA.
The Italian broadcaster said that for now it is seeking
compensation estimated at 50 million euros ($56.6 million) a month
starting from July 25 for damages stemming from a delay in
executing the contract. The legal action, it added, doesn't take in
the overall damages the Italian company would suffer if Vivendi
fails to respect the accord. Mediaset says the overall damages
would top EUR1.5 billion.
In April, the French company agreed to acquire its Italian
counterpart's pay-TV unit in a deal that included swapping 3.5%
stakes between Mediaset and Vivendi.
But three months later, the Vivendi sent a letter to Mediaset,
which is controlled by the family of former Italian Premier Silvio
Berlusconi, in which it proposed new terms. Those new terms would
have Vivendi buying only 20% of the pay-TV unit and acquiring 15%
of Mediaset itself in three years. Vivendi added that it was
seeking to amend the contract in light of "significant differences
in the analysis" of the financial results of Mediaset's pay-TV
unit, Mediaset Premium.
At the end of July, Mediaset's board rejected the changes
proposed by Vivendi to the pay-television deal, setting up a legal
showdown between the two European media giants.
Fininvest, the Berlusconi holding company that controls
Mediaset, accused Vivendi of attempting to build "an extremely
large stake in Mediaset in an underhanded and unacceptable
way."
Vivendi, which is run by French billionaire Vincent Bolloré,
rejected accusations adding that the April agreement was based on a
business plan "that proved to be wildly optimistic or even totally
unworkable."
-Write to Giada Zampano at giada.zampano@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 19, 2016 14:17 ET (18:17 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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