French media company Vivendi SA (VIV.FR) Wednesday said that it is confident it acted fully in line with Brazilian market regulations when buying Brazilian telecom operator GVT last year.

Brazilian market regulator CVM has opened an administrative procedure against Vivendi over possible irregularities over the purchase of GVT.

"We are fully confident that at all times we have acted fully in line with Brazilian stockmarket regulations in acquiring GVT," a company spokesman said.

The spokesman said that Vivendi has cooperated with the inquiry, which opened in December last year, and is providing any information requested.

Last November, Vivendi surprised investors by announcing that it had guaranteed control of GVT through an agreement with the controlling shareholders and options contracts to buy GVT stocks from third parties. Vivendi paid 56 Brazilian reals ($29.94) a share for GVT shares.

The company outflanked Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF) that had made a bid of BRL50.50 for GVT shares.

CVM is investigating whether the options transaction followed Brazilian legislation and whether Vivendi misled investors in some way.

Media reports on Tuesday said that Vivendi could be fined up to $1.6 billion if the CVM found any irregularities in the purchase.

"We decline to comment on the process beyond saying that any figures being arbitrarily thrown around are pure uninformed fabrication," the spokesman added, referring to the media reports.

-By Ruth Bender, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 40 17 17 54; ruth.bender@dowjones.com
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