Report Says Bronfmans Will Try to Oust Messier
The top shareholder of Vivendi Universal is preparing to call for a meeting of shareholders to oust Chairman Jean-Marie Messier after the French media and utility giant’s recent share-price slide, a newspaper report said Friday.
Members of the Bronfman family, who own 5.05% of Vivendi stock, are furious that Messier wasn’t removed by the board of directors at its meeting Tuesday, the French business newspaper La Tribune reported. The article cited people familiar with the matter but did not identify them.
The report said the French members of the board rallied to defend Messier, while five North American members--including Edgar Bronfman Sr., Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Samuel Minzberg, who represents Charles Bronfman on the board--voted against the chairman.
A Vivendi spokesman declined to comment to the Associated Press about the report.
Rules established between Canada’s Seagram, French pay-TV company Canal Plus and France’s Vivendi--which merged in 2000--make it difficult for individuals or groups to call for a special shareholders’ meeting, the report said.
Meanwhile Friday, Vivendi announced it is selling about 5.27 million shares in French construction company Vinci, valued at $347 million based on Thursday’s closing price. The move is part of Vivendi’s debt reduction strategy, the company said.
On Thursday, France’s commercial court rejected a request by a shareholder rights group to begin an investigation of corporate governance practices at Vivendi.
The group, the Assn. for the Defense of Minority Shareholders, had asked the court to name an outside expert to look into the way management kept the board of directors apprised of its decisions.
On Monday, Vivendi’s shares plunged 23%, to their lowest level in 13 years, after it unveiled plans to sell one-third of its stake in utility company Vivendi Environnement.
The board met Tuesday after Bernard Arnault, head of luxury goods company LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and a top Messier ally, quit Vivendi’s board.
