French billionaire Vincent Bolloré is to gain a seat on the board of Vivendi, after his investment vehicle increased its stake in the music to pay-television group from 4.4% to 5%.
Bolloré, who is the chairman and largest shareholder in French advertising group Havas, is now one of the largest shareholders in Vivendi.
Bolloré has a track record of making canny strategic investments – he made a net gain of €450m (£356m) when he sold his stake in Aegis when it was taken over by Dentsu for £3.2bn – and in a statement Bolloré Group said it intends to hold the Vivendi stake "for the long term".
"The supervisory board welcomes the presence in Vivendi's capital of an industrial, family-owned French group, which has now become one of the largest Vivendi shareholders," said chairman Jean-René Fourtou.
Vivendi, which owns assets including Universal Music, Call of Duty maker Activision and telecoms operations in France and around the world, is reviewing its portfolio of investments.
The company, which recently completed the £1.2bn takeover of EMI Music through its music subsidiary Universal, is in the process of selling off its Brazilian and Moroccan telecoms units.
"Bulls are likely to point to the growing influence of Bolloré as driving a shakeup of Vivendi," said Polo Tang, an analyst at UBS. "Ultimately, we believe all the units in the group are up for sale at the right price. "However, we believe disposals may either take longer than expected to achieve, or that prices may be lower than expected. For example, regulatory pressures and balance sheet constraints on the bidders could impact a sale of [Brazilian broadband provider] GVT."
In September last year Vivendi's pay-TV arm Canal+ acquired Bolloré's free-to-air television business in a €465m deal.
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