Activist shareholder seeks documents over alleged opaque Vivendi phone unit sale to Altice

Colette Neuville, who currently leads a group that defends minority shareholders of Vivendi SA, has recently launched an attempt to seize documents pertaining to the sale of the French conglomerate's phone business to Altice SA. Vivendi said in a statement yesterday that Beuville had requested a bailiff to enter the Paris-based company's offices to retrieve the documents.

The owner of the Universal Music Group and Canal+ has picked billionaire Patrick Drahi's company over another bidder, construction and telecommunications group Bouygues SA, to discuss the sale of the second-largest phone company in France, Bloomberg said. Neuville has earlier claimed that the sale process of SFR was opaque and that the bailiff's appearance at Vivendi's offices were meant to keep the documents for possible legal actions that her group might consider pursuing. Neuville also said that Vivendi denied her request done on March 20, urging the latter to publish details of both Altice' and Bouygues' offers and provide its line of reasoning on the decision to go with Drahi instead. The activist shareholder said that their demand for Vivendi to allow a shareholder vote on the sale of SFR at a meeting was turned down by the French conglomerate.

In a phone interview, Neuville disclosed to Bloomberg, "(Vivendi board members) shouldn't make a hasty decision on the sale of the group's main asset. They should at least get an independent adviser. There's very little transparency, so one wonders whether there's something to hide."

Vivendi, on the other hand, said it will fight back with Neuville about the group's attempt to acquire the documents. Bloomberg quoted the company, which said, "Vivendi's lawyers have decided to oppose this intrusion and will apply to a judge for a summary judgment."

Neuville's group is not the only one concerned about the proceedings of the SFR sale. Bloomberg said that the market regulator in France said on March 28 that it had already asked all three companies involved in the sale to provide additional information that would lead to the sale of SFR, and that it will be applying sanctions if any of the three do not abide by stock market rules on disclosure.

Tags

Altice SA, SFR sale, Vivendi SA

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