Vivendi Commited To EMI Deal

Vivendi finance head Philippe Capron says his company is “committed to the deal” to buy EMI’s recorded music business, even if it means hiving off half its new acquisition to appease the European Commission.

“We’ve had constructive discussions for a long time with the regulators,” he said, expressing the view that he’s “cautiously confident” of a positive outcome.

Capron was speaking as Vivendi announced that Universal Music Group, the division that’s made the $1.9 billion for EMI, had a 3.2 percent increase in revenues in the first half of the year that was driven by increased music publishing revenues and improved music sales in North America.

Despite earlier rumours, Vivendi has ruled out splitting its media and telecoms operations to divide its euro 14 billion ($17.6 billion) debt because it would penalise bondholders.

UMG had euro 156 million ($196 million) pre-tax earnings on revenues of euro 1.9 billion ($2.4 billion), which was 18.2 percent the euro 132 million ($166 million) reported for the first half of 2011.

In its earnings release, the company said its revenues were boosted by releases from Justin Bieber, Madonna, Nicki Minaj and Les Enfoirés, as well as the breakthrough by new acts including Lana Del Rey and Gotye.

The second half of the year also looks full of promise as Robbie Williams, The Killers, Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, Diana Krall, Eros Ramazzotti, Alejandro Sanz, and No Doubt all have new music in the pipeline.

For the quarter ending June 30, Vivendi reported net income of euro 706 million ($888 million) on revenues of euro 6.97 billion ($8.76 billion).

That amounts to a 20.1 percent fall on the euro 884 million ($1.1 billion) net income in the second quarter of 2013, when revenues were euro 7.1 billion ($8.9 billion).