Vivendi to spin off SFR

Paris, France, December 2, 2013 -- Vivendi, the French media and telecommunications group, has confirmed its plan to split in two by spinning off its SFR telecommunications company and list it separately on the stock market.

“This plan could take the form of a distribution of SFR shares to Vivendi shareholders on the day of the transaction,” the company said. It added that its supervisory board had approved the spin off, first floated in September.

SFR (acronym of Société française de radiotéléphone) provides mobile phone, landline, Internet, IP television and mobile internet to consumers and businesses. SFR is fully owned by French conglomerate Vivendi. Its SFR mobile phone network infrastructure was built by Vodafone, who previously had a 44 percent share in SFR until April 2011 when it sold the entire share back to Vivendi.

As of 2012, SFT had 21 million customers and provided 5 million households with high-speed internet access.  SFR is the first operator to launch 4G in France, for both businesses and the general public. Since November 1, SFR’s 4G service served 415 towns. SFR is following through with its ambitious deployment program to cover 40 percent of the population by the end of 2013, which means SFR’s 4G will be available in 1,200 towns.

Vivendi, which owns Universal Music Group, the Canal Plus pay-TV network and GVT, a Brazilian telco, also confirmed that Vincent Bolloré would become its chairman following the split.

French media reports that Bolloré, who heads his own Bolloré industrial group, is Vivendi’s biggest shareholder with a 5 percent stake, and will replace Jean-Rene Fourtou, the 74-year-old chairman.

Reports also say that Arnaud de Puyfontaine, chief executive of Hearst Magazines UK, will join