Vincent Bolloré joins Vivendi board

Vincent Bolloré is to join the supervisory board of Vivendi following his company’s crossing of a 5% shareholder threshold in the French media and telecoms giant as a result of the latter’s acquisition of Direct 8 and Direct Star – now renamed D8 and D17 – from Bolloré Group. 

“The supervisory board welcomes the presence in Vivendi’s capital of an industrial, family-owned French group, who has now become one of the largest Vivendi shareholders,” said Vivendi chairman Jean-René Fourtou. “Confirming what I declared at the shareholders’ meeting on April 19, 2012, we will propose that Vincent Bolloré joins Vivendi’s supervisory board.”

Bolloré Group has said it will remain at its current level of participation in Vivendi and that it planned to remain a shareholder for the long term. The 5.01% stake gives Bolloré the status of the leading institutional shareholder in the company, followed by Black Rock with 4.6% and Société Générale with 4.55%.

Bolloré’s joining of the supervisory board comes amidst speculation that Vivendi is moving to dispose of non-media assets including mobile and fixed-line telco SFR, as well as stakes in telcos outside Europe.