Messier Disputes Vivendi Claim

Amid speculation that former Vivendi Universal Chief Executive Jean-Marie Messier dumped more than 200,000 shares in the months leading up to Vivendi’s financial crisis last summer, Messier produced a statement from his own broker indicating he amassed more shares during that critical period.

Messier purchased 26,800 shares during the six-month period in which Vivendi’s shares plummeted 70% and the French media giant’s debt was downgraded to “junk” status, a financial statement from broker Gerard Noblet of French bank Societe Generale showed.

“Everyone can see I didn’t sell one single share in 2002 or 2003,” Messier said in interview Wednesday. “Throughout my tenure, I always increased the number of shares of Vivendi Universal.”

Messier was responding to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing in which Vivendi suggested that Messier sold about 230,000 shares between Dec. 31, 2001, and June 30, 2002. That disclosure contradicted Messier’s own assertions and a regulatory filing Vivendi made in August that no directors sold shares in the first half of 2002. Vivendi said the statement was based on declarations from the directors, including Messier.

Any sale would raise questions about whether Messier was profiting from inside information, and could be highly significant in the four criminal and civil investigations of Vivendi underway in France and the U.S. Vivendi and Messier also face more than a dozen shareholder lawsuits, including one from Liberty Media Corp., that accuse the company of misleading investors about its financial woes.

Messier, who has denied any wrongdoing, blamed the discrepancy on an administrative error by a bank that tracks Vivendi directors’ share sales, causing the company to incorrectly report that Messier held 592,810 shares as of Dec. 31, 2001. According to the broker’s statement, Messier held 333,243 of the company’s French shares on that date. He bought more shares in April, his last purchase before his ouster. Since then, he has continued to buy shares and currently holds 430,000.

Messier said that he has asked Vivendi to correct its filing and that his Paris attorney forwarded the broker’s statement to French stock market regulators.

Sources close to the company said Vivendi has launched an internal investigation of the matter.

A Vivendi spokeswoman confirmed that the 2001 share disclosure was based on information from a third-party bank but declined to comment further.

Meanwhile, Messier is in arbitration talks with Vivendi, reportedly to settle a dispute over severance pay and the company-owned Park Avenue penthouse where he and his family lived until recently. Messier stopped paying rent in January, citing a mold problem in the building, company sources say.

In other developments, Vivendi on Wednesday named Executive Vice President Hubert Joly as Vivendi’s deputy chief financial officer. He replaces former Controller John Luczycki, who will handle other Vivendi projects.

Vivendi said the appointment was part of a reorganization of the finance department to “strengthen the financial management of the business.”