Vivendi SA (VIV), whose management gathered during the weekend to discuss strategy, said today it has nothing to update investors with and will communicate its plans “as and when appropriate.”
Shareholders and analysts had expected the annual gathering, which had been planned to take place on the French island of Corsica before it was moved to a location near Paris, would shed light on how the media and telecommunications company plans to reverse a 23 percent drop in its share price over the past 12 months. Vivendi slipped 2.1 percent to 13.71 euros at 10:39 a.m. on the Paris exchange.
“There might be some disappointment on a lack of dramatic announcement from company’s internal seminar,” Saeed Baradar, an analyst at Societe Generale in London, wrote in a note today. JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts said last week that the absence of an announcement following the meeting may “negatively” affect the shares.
Vivendi, which owns Universal Music Group and phone operators in France, Morocco and Brazil, was set to consider options for a reorganization and discuss the future of the Paris-based company’s video-game unit Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) (ATVI), people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this month. Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Levy is under pressure to revive the company’s stock, which is trading near the lowest level in nine years, and which Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou says is valued at a discount because of Vivendi’s holding structure.
“The supervisory and management boards gathered in Paris this weekend for their annual two-day meeting to work on the group’s strategic orientations,” Vivendi said in a brief statement today. “The outcomes of this meeting are not to be released publicly. Vivendi will communicate on its plans and the necessary evolution of the group as and when appropriate.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Marie Mawad in Paris at
mmawad1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at
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