PARIS: Vivendi shares fell about 5 percent on Monday and Numericable-SFR's climbed by a similar amount after news the media group had agreed to sell its remaining stake in the business at a price analysts and traders see as low.
Vivendi said on Friday that it will sell its 20 percent stake in Numericable-SFR to billionaire Patrick Drahi, who will carry out the 3.9 billion euro ($4.36 billion) purchase via his holding company Altice and Numericable-SFR itself.
Shares in Altice, which already has 60 percent of Numericable-SFR after buying most of the SFR business from Vivendi last year, also climbed by more than 5 percent.
Analysts said they were also disappointed by the small scale of the share buyback Vivendi announced along with its fourth quarter results on Friday.
The buyback is worth 2.7 billion euros at a maximum purchase price of 20 euros per share.
"While results and guidance should have supported Vivendi's share price, we are surprised by the sale of Numericable's stake at such a low level. Vivendi says, unconvincing, that low liquidity justifies such a discount," said a Paris-based trader.
Comments
Comments are closed.