Vivendi appeal against telecoms regulatory ruling regarding Mediaset postponed until 4 July (translated)
20 JAN 2018
Vivendi [EPA:VIV] has had an appeal in the Lazio tribunal against a ruling by Italian telecoms regulator, AGCom, in regard to the French group's 29.9% holding in media group Mediaset [BIT:MS] postponed until 4 July, Italian-language daily Il Messaggero reported. The report cited a court ruling noting that the delay was at Vivendi's request.
According to the AGCOM ruling, Vivendi had to freeze its voting rights in Mediaset to 9.9%, the report noted. The item added that Vivendi has meanwhile been preparing to put the remaining 19.9% stake in a blind trust but is still trying to overturn the ruling in the courts.
Vivendi is hoping to reach an out-of-court settlement with Mediaset that would allow for a permanent solution for its stake in the Italian media group. However, the item noted that if a peace agreement is not reached with Mediaset by mid-April, Vivendi will transfer the 19.9% stake to the blind trust in order to avoid sanctions from AGCom.
Vivendi's postponement of the deal is most likely due to it wishing to have more time to reach an agreement with Mediaset, the report said.
As previously reported, the original dispute between Vivendi and Mediaset broke out when Vivendi pulled out of an earlier agreement to acquire Mediaset Premium, Mediaset's pay-TV arm. The subsequent dispute led Mediaset to take court action, with Vivendi retaliating by building up its present stake in Mediaset.
Vivendi, which is the largest shareholder of Telecom Italia (TI) [BIT:TIT] with a 23.3% stake and holding a 29.9% stake in Mediaset, was ordered in April to take action to comply with the national telecoms regulation, the report noted. According to Italian law, a company holding over 40% of the Italian telecoms market cannot control television, radio or publishing companies holding more than 10% of the market in terms of revenues.
TI, according to 2015 data, held 44.7% of the country’s telecommunications market. Meanwhile, Mediaset held 13.3% of the TV, radio and the publishing market.
Mediaset has a market cap of EUR 3.81bn.