By Ruth Bender
PARIS--Vivendi SA (VIV.FR) Thursday posted a drop in net profit
for the first quarter of the year as the group cements its
refashioning into a smaller media company.
Vivendi said net profit fell 19% to 431 million euros ($591
million) from EUR534 million in the same period last year, dragged
down by an exceptional tax charge linked to the pending sale of its
French phone unit SFR.
Vivendi reported its first quarterly results excluding SFR, a
business that contributed to around half of its sales and profits
prior to the agreement to sell it to Patrick Drahi's holding firm
Altice SA last month.
Excluding SFR, sales fell 3.7% to EUR2.72 billion from a
pro-forma of EUR2.83 billion last year as growth at its Canal Plus
pay TV unit couldn't offset a decline at its Universal Music group
and Brazilian telecom company GVT, where the weaker local currency
weighed on sales.
Vivendi has been selling a flurry of assets, including most of
its stake in videogame maker Activision Blizzard Inc., and SFR and
Maroc Telecom, as it seeks to pay down debt and become a
smaller-based firm focusing on media and content activities.
Vivendi is set to lay out its new media strategy later in the
year after replacing its current Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou with
French industrialist Vincent Bollore.
Write to Ruth Bender at ruth.bender@wsj.com
Access Investor Kit for Vivendi SA
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=A591&isin=FR0000127771
Access Investor Kit for Vivendi SA
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=A591&isin=US92852T2015
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires