Home / Royal Mail / Boost for City after Canal+ given green light to list in London: Shares in French film studio to start trading before Christmas

Boost for City after Canal+ given green light to list in London: Shares in French film studio to start trading before Christmas

The French production firm behind the Paddington films will list in London this month after investors approved the break-up of its parent company.

In a boost for the City, Vivendi shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of the spin-off of Canal+ and other parts of the business at a meeting in Paris.

Shares in the newly independent Canal+ will start trading in London on Monday next week.

The listing of such a high profile company will be seen as a major victory for the stock exchange following an exodus of firms from the London market.

The move is part of the break-up of entertainment conglomerate Vivendi, which is controlled by the billionaire Bollore family, to boost the value of its business units.

Some 95pc of shareholders voted for the split at a meeting in the French capital yesterday afternoon despite vocal opposition from some minority investors.

London bound: Shareholders in Vivendi, which produced the Paddington films, voted in favour of the spinoff of Canal Plus and other parts of the business

Analysts said the resounding approval signalled that ‘London is open for business and is an attractive market’.

However, activist investor CIAM, which owns a 0.025 per cent stake in Vivendi, said it would press ahead with legal action to stop the demerger.

Communication firm Havas and book publisher Louis Hachette Group are also being hived off into separate companies as part of the major shake-up. 

The Havas advertising business will be listed in Amsterdam and Hachette will float in Paris.

Shares in the new firms are expected to begin trading on December 16.

Following the vote, Vivendi will essentially become a listed investment holding company, managing notably a 10 per cent stake in Universal Music Group after spinning it out three-years ago.

Canal+ is estimated to be worth £5billion, Havas £2.1billion and Hachette £1.8billion, according to investment bank JP Morgan. 

Dan Coatsworth, an investment analyst at broker AJ Bell, said: ‘Vivendi getting the green light to spin off Canal+ signals to the rest of the world that London is open for business and is an attractive market.

‘Vivendi wouldn’t have chosen the listing venue unless it thought there would be a queue of investors waiting to get involved.’

Susannah Streeter at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown added: ‘The UK is looking more attractive than its European peers, particularly given the political uncertainty which has erupted in France.’

A row between CIAM and the Bollore family had brewed ahead of the vote. The minority investor argued that the spin-off would only benefit Vivendi’s top shareholder, led by French billionaire financier Vincent Bollore.

It warned that the split would deprive minority shareholders of protection under French stock market laws.

But CIAM’s attempt to delay yesterday’s meeting was defeated last week when an injunction it filed was rejected by a French court.

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