Vivendi is deeply contemplating the separation of its largest subsidiary, SFR from the main company. SFR is the conglomerate's mobile telecoms operator in France. Part of the spin off deal would be placing a large part of its overall debt into the subsidiary.
The said spin off was reported on Bloomberg's news website. As a result, Vivendi share values rose by 4.4% to Eur16.22 per share. The report did say though that no finality has been reached yet and Vivendi may consider other options aside from the spin off.
According to a Vivendi spokesperson, "Vivendi is interested in maximizing value for SFR and at this stage any other speculation would be very premature."
Currently, Vivendi is conducting a portfolio review and a revamp of its strategy with the hope to reduce exposure in capital intensive telecoms businesses as it focuses on music and pay TV markets. This thrust though has been derailed as its sale of Brazilian telecom unit GVT among others have been received tepidly by the market.
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