Vivendi set for Tencent UMG investment, plus interest from others
![Vivendi set for Tencent UMG investment, plus interest from others Vivendi set for Tencent UMG investment, plus interest from others](https://a6p8a2b3.stackpathcdn.com/UHtvKVSv5ZEZBbB30dDVhF_dPoA=/414x310/smart/rockol-img/img/foto/upload/tencent.jpg)
Vivendi’s latest quarterly financial results gave an update on the company’s plans to sell up to half of Universal Music off to partners. Talks with Tencent to buy up to 20% of UMG continue: Vivendi said that the due diligence and legal documentation should be finished within the next few weeks. That deal valued UMG at around $33bn, with the good news for Vivendi being – according to the company anyway – that other potential investors have emerged showing “interest” in buying a stake at roughly the same valuation.
As for the financials, they showed that UMG’s revenues in the third quarter of 2019 were €1.8bn (around $2bn), up 16% year-on-year. That included a 13.3% rise in UMG’s recorded-music revenues to €1.4bn, with streaming accounting for €837m ($936m) of that – streaming growth for UMG’s recorded-music division of 19.7% year-on-year. Music publishing revenues grew by 8.3% to €293m ($328m).
And that’s not all: in a further statement, Vivendi said: “[There is a] continuing process for the potential sale of an additional minority stake in UMG to other partners. Some have already expressed an interest in investing at a similar price level.”
That price level was set by Tencent in August, when it announced that it had made a bid for 10% to 20% of Universal, in a move that valued UMG at €30bn ($33bn).
According to Vivendi’s update, Tencent’s bid comprises a “strategic investment of 10% of the share capital, with [an] option to acquire an additional 10%”. Vivendi said it may use proceeds from the deal “for a significant share buyback program and bolt-on acquisitions”.