PADDINGTON BEAR: Films are produced by Vivendi’s StudioCanal
Credit: studiocanal.com
French company Canal+, owner of StudioCanal which produces the Paddington films, will be listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) by mid-December.
City sources quoted in the UK and European media predicted a market value of up to £6.7 billion (€8.04 billion) for Canal+, which was likely to enter the FTSE 100 index.
This would mean a significant boost for the LSE whose most important debuts this year were the £540 million (€649.7 million) Raspberry Pi and £400 million (€489.2 million) Applied Nutrition listings.
The float plan is included in an extensive breakup programmed for Vivendi, the French media empire controlled by its largest shareholder, billionaire Vincent Bollore. The 72-year-old still exerts a powerful influence over the company although his son Yannick took over as chairman in 2018.
Further plans include listing Vivendi’s Havas advertising agency in Amsterdam and establishing a new investment arm based on its Lagardere publishing subsidiary.
The remaining portion of the parent company, which owns a portfolio of investments that include a 10 per cent holding in the world’s biggest record company, Universal Music Group, will be listed in Paris.
A Vivendi press release issued in July this year explained that the outcome of the “ongoing split project” and admission to the LSE would be a French holding company called Canal+.
“Shares in the new holding company will automatically begin trading, and be given out to current Vivendi shareholders, once the listing is done, with no new capital being raised or new investors being brought on,” the release continued.
