Vivendi Set For Overhaul?

Universal Music Group parent company Vivendi is looking into overhauling the company in a bid to boost its share price, according to Bloomberg.

Vivendi chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou and the supervisory board are mulling over the advantages of breaking the company up, Bloomberg reported.

Vivendi is currently structured as a holding vehicle of multiple units.

Bloomberg says there’ll be some high-level talks between now and mid-June, apparently focusing on the possibility of splitting the company in two.

On one side there would be music and media, which would incorporate Universal Music Group and video-game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc.

The other part would comprise telecommunications and content distribution, although that may not include pay-TV operator Canal Plus.

Insiders told Bloomberg that another option is to spin off Canal Plus, which is 20 percent owned by Paris-based publisher Lagardere.

A Vivendi spokesman said the company has no intention of separating from the TV operator.

Shareholders have been made aware Vivendi is considering a review of its corporate structure, but the spokesman said that so far no decisions have been made.

The company has been under pressure from shareholders fed up with tumbling share prices.

News of the possible re-jig pepped the price up to euro 14.41, 8.1 percent in a day, but that’s still 21 percent lower than it was a year ago.

In a letter to shareholders on the “disappointing” stock performance, chief exec Jean-Bernard Levy said Vivendi’s portfolio of assets made sense, although the board “regularly posed the question of the group’s perimeter.”