Arnaud de Puyfontaine (Vivendi) : Rachat de Lagardère, quelle stratégie pour Vivendi ?

The price to pay is high. The work we have done since 2019 on Editis has allowed us to have a group that is a first-class group with 53 publishing houses. The project of the merger of Vivendi and Lagardère is a project that marks the strategic project of Vivendi. For us, compared to the position of number two in France with the number one position of the Lagardère group, Hachette in the French market, it was not compatible with the rules of competition for the magazine press part. We had many exchanges with the European Commission on Paris Match versus Gala. It turned out that we could not convince our interlocutors that the two magazines and the two brands are very different from each other, so it is indeed a concession we made to have the possibility, we hope on June 14 as you said, to have the declaration of compatibility from the European Commission, which will allow us to concretize this project. So for the Commission, it's a celebrity magazine. That seems to be the case, at least that's what we were told, hence the decision to sell Gala. On Gala, we are at the very beginning and so we are preparing the entire process to find a good shareholder for Gala to ensure that the formidable team that has carried this brand to the forefront of magazine brands through its distribution performance, digital development, has the possibility to continue the story but under different flags as well.

First of all, it is a group that is already... and the agenda of Vivendi since the beginning in 2014 and the implementation of the new team, and since the opening of the new chapter in our development that we started with Yannick Bolloré, who is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, is to ensure that we transform all the businesses that are the businesses of our group. So the agenda, and we are often asked what your project is, the project is transformation, transformation, transformation. So to come back to your question, we are more than a media group, we are a media group with different types of media and we want to transform them as we have done in all our businesses. Look at music, what we have achieved, we contributed to the reinvention of Universal Music Group. Look at what Canal+ was in 2014, look at what Canal+ has become today. So that is item number one of our project. You now refer to a supposed ideological dimension in the project. I read many things. What I can say is that the comment that comes to mind is: there is no political or ideological project of any kind. Many things I can hear or read are totally erroneous. The reality is that if you take Editis, 53 publishing houses with a spectrum that respects a very wide range of positions, it is the same for our television channels, it is the same for our magazine titles. There is no ideological project; there is an economic project. We are here to operate the transformation of the media sector. We are here to create value for all our shareholders, and until now, we have indeed had some results where we can say that our past speaks for our future. But our project is an economic project, it is an entrepreneurial project, and it is a project that makes us proud, and I say 'us' means all the men and women of the Vivendi group for the path taken, but even more enthusiastic about the one that remains to build.

You know, if the agenda as I said of Vivendi is that of transformation, integration, and internationalization. Canal+ and the Canal+ group, and the work done by all the teams led by Maxime Saada, is work that is absolutely the illustration of these three objectives. The project you refer to is not just a reality; it is indeed a unique agreement in the world between Apple and the Canal+ group, for now in France and then a few developments in other countries, but which is indeed very innovative and allows all Canal+ subscribers to have access to Apple TV+ products. That's the whole aggregator side of the Canal+ group. Because the Canal+ group is a broadcaster, it is a producer with the first European studio, StudioCanal, with an absolutely fantastic catalog. It is the second business: original series from the Canal+ group. I recommend 'BRI' which was launched yesterday and which is a remarkable series in the vein of the original creations of the Canal+ group. And then you have the role of aggregator. So when you are a subscriber to Canal+, you have the possibility to have all Canal+ products of course, but you have access to Netflix, you have access to Paramount+, and now we go a step further in integration with Apple, and it is a formidable achievement and in my opinion a first illustration of this additional step in integration and especially the formidable service we provide to all subscribers of the Canal+ group via myCanal, which is the best platform for consuming audiovisual content.

Thank you for that question. Indeed, Vivendi is a group with a lot of potential. The reality is when you look at our stock market performance since 2014, we have substantial performance, superior to the performance of the CAC 40. So little by little we are tracing our path with Yannick Bolloré and all our teams, the new management board we put in place last June, the executive committee we created that represents all the businesses. Our objective is to change the perception of our group and to make it an integrated industrial group and to have the ability to demonstrate that our house can create value and ensure that all our businesses under the flag can have superior value creation than if they were independent. You are right, it's our agenda. Havas is the convergence between content and communication businesses with a very nice performance when you look at Havas's organic growth last year, the recent win of Danone which is a formidable conquest. It's a group that moves, it's a group with agility, adaptability, and works closely with all our businesses. And you referred to Gameloft, a group whose 2022 performances are very advanced in terms of growth with the Disney Dreamlight Valley game on the convergence of console, PC and mobile. So each of our businesses has its own transformation agenda and our objective is to develop multiple collaborations within our group and to make this perception evolve positively because there is a very beautiful value creation potential in Vivendi.

Listen, we will first see on June 14 if we have a declaration of compatibility from the European Commission. We have said that the Lagardère group would keep its integrity with the full support of Arnaud Lagardère, and I send him my friendship. And on which we have a real project of value creation and collaboration. The retail business is at its peak, so again it's too early for me to tell you what it will be in the future, but we will leave the group in its integrity; that's a commitment we have made. I will come back to detail the vision we will have with the Lagardère teams on the subject.

Ah, well, you know the reason for being is 'Creation Unlimited'. And so the greatest common denominator in all our businesses is the creative process. We are a group in the creative industries. So we have right brain, left brain that resonate and indeed create, thanks to all the men and women of this group, the possibility to build a group with the French flag in this sector of creative industries with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of determination, a lot of will. And so once again, our intention is to ensure that in the months and years to come, we can illustrate it in all the achievements we will put in place.