Vivendi's Bollore gets backing for double voting rights

Vincent Bollore has secured double voting rights at Vivendi, tightening his grip on the content and media group eyeing more acquisitions this year.

The chairman of the Paris-based group extended his control after shareholders voted in favour of France's so-called Florange law, which grants double-voting rights on shares registered for more than two years, at the company's annual meeting.

The controversial law, which Vivendi shareholders supported on Friday, stands to boost Mr Bollore's voting rights from 14.7 per cent to almost 20 per cent by April 2016, when it will come into force. It will then increase beyond 20 per cent in April 2017.

More than half of shareholders voted against double-voting rights, though this was short of the two-thirds majority needed to quash it.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Vivendi's chief executive, said that the law was good for Vivendi. "At the end of the day, it is an opportunity for a group such as Vivendi to get a long-term shareholder to be able to implement a story that is going to create value for all the shareholders," he told the Financial Times.

"It's always great to be able to reward somebody with a long-term view rather than to have to cope with short-termism."

Mr Bollore, who has spent about €2.8bn in the past six weeks to increase his Vivendi stake from about 5 per cent to 14.5 per cent, said that he intended to look for further acquisitions this year as the group looks to find new business opportunities around its two pillars: Universal Music Group and the Canal Plus pay-television arm.

Investors have started to put pressure on Mr Bollore and his team after a two-year asset sale wiped out Vivendi's debts and left it sitting on an estimated €15bn of cash.

The group this month entered exclusive talks to buy 80 per cent of the video-sharing site Dailymotion from telecoms operator Orange for €217m. "Dailymotion is an exceptional opportunity to bring our content together," Mr Bollore told shareholders on Friday.

But he also described the deal as "insufficient", telling shareholders to expect more to come this year. "None of the owners of media assets are going to sell us great businesses for less than their market value," he said. "So it is up to us to pay the right, fair price, and then to create value."

Mr de Puyfontaine said it was too early to talk about specific plans, but added: "We are not a bank, we are not there to keep a lot of cash on the balance sheet."

Vivendi came under attack from minority P. Schoenfeld Asset Management (PSAM), a US hedge fund, last month that had pushed for a higher dividend payment and greater clarity on corporate strategy. The two sides reached an agreement after Vivendi agreed to increase its payments.

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