PARIS—Vivendi SA on Wednesday boosted its stake in Italian
telecommunications firm Telecom Italia SpA to 14.9%, spending
roughly €1 billion to give the French company and its chairman
Vincent Bolloré a bigger presence in Italy.
The deal will make the French media conglomerate the largest
shareholder in Telecom Italia, Vivendi says, giving it a new stake
in the telecommunications business despite articulating in recent
years a strategy of selling telecommunications assets to focus on
media.
Vivendi said it "intends to support Telecom Italia over the long
term."
"This investment represents an opportunity for the Group to be
present and to expand in a market with significant growth prospects
and a very strong appetite for quality content," Vivendi said,
adding that it also gives the company "a foothold in a country with
which it shares the same Latin culture and roots."
As expected, Vivendi said it received Wednesday an 8.2% stake in
Telecom Italia as part of the deal it struck last year to sell its
Brazilian broadband unit GVT to Telefonica SA. Spain's Telefonica
wanted to disentangle itself from Telecom Italia.
In addition, Vivendi said it purchased in recent weeks an
additional 6.7% of Telecom Italia, for roughly €1 billion. Some of
those shares are subject to a hedging agreement that could last a
maximum of three years, the French firm added.
Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com
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