Vivendi third quarter net profit falls 24% to €376m

Vivendi has seen its profits rocked by poor sales and the high cost of buying programmes. Image: Vivendi

The group said investigations into splitting up its telecommunications and media assets, which includes Universal Music Group, were continuing.

Sales were stable at €5.3bn during the July to September quarter, while operating profit slumped by a quarter to €610m.

Mobile operator SFR saw its third quarter sales slide 8.7% to €2.5bn as competition remained stiff for the French
telecommunications market.

Operating profits dropped 37.8% to €334m. Universal Music Group saw its operating profits go up by 36.6% to €112m on the back of an 18.5% increase in sales to €1bn.

Premium TV company Canal+ posted a 6.8% increase in sales to €1.2bn, but operating profits fell by 9.2% to €217m because of the higher costs of buying programmes.

Vivendi said the group's net debt would drop from €16.4bn to €7.2bn after the sales of its 88% stake in video game company Activision Blizzard and its 53% stake in Maroc Telecom are completed.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge