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Vivendi launches 2 bln euro offer for Brazil's GVT
2009-09-08
PARIS (AFP) - French media and telecom giant Vivendi said it was launching an offer for Brazil's GVT that values the fixed telecommunications operator at two billion euros (2.9 billion dollars). The French company said it had signed an agreement Tuesday with GVT's controlling shareholders that "enables Vivendi to launch an amicable tender offer for 100 percent of GVT's share capital." Vivendi said its offer was conditional on it obtaining at least 51 percent of GVT, which is listed on the Brazilian stock exchange, receiving the support of the company's board and shareholders waiving the anti-takeover mechanism. It said GVT's founding and controlling shareholders, Swarth Group and Global Village Telecom BV of Holland, had agreed to sell at least at 20 percent of the 30 percent stake they hold in the Brazilian company. Vivendi said the deal will allow the two companies to "capitalise on their respective strengths to enable GVT to continue with its accelerated growth," with the French company bringing its expertise in content that will allow GVT to enter new market sector such as Internet-protocol television. It pledged to keep the company's current chairman and chief executives in place. "This agreement with GVT meets a strategic objective for Vivendi to expand in fast growing economies," the company's CEO Jean-Bernard Levy was quoted as saying in statement. "GVT has developed innovative and original solutions in broadband communications services and already delivered very exciting results," he said. GVT's CEO Amos Genish said having Vivendi as a shareholder "will bring know-how and synergies to our current and future activities, which will solidify our market position as the fastest growing telecommunications operator in the Brazilian market and will open new business opportunities for us." Over the past three years the alternative fixed telephone and high-speed Internet provider has generated compounded annual growth rate of 31.1 percent for net revenue. Vivendi said last week its half-year revenue soared 17 percent to 13.1 billion euros (19 billion dollars), while net profit fell by 2.8 percent to 1.18 billion euros (2.6 billion dollars).
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