- Notable win for London market
- Float to ‘unleash potential’
- Analysts see £5 billion valuation
After what has been a poor year for UK listings, the London Stock Exchange celebrated this morning with the float of French media group Canal Plus (CAN) which debuted with a market value of around £2.5 billion.
Although the shares are listed in London, they don’t qualify for inclusion in the FTSE 250 index as the company is still French-domiciled.
GRAND PLAN
The float of Canal Plus, which produced the hit Paddington films, is part of French businessman Vincent Bollore’s plan to break up the Paris-based conglomerate Vivendi (VIV:EPA) in order to ‘fully unleash the development potential’ of its different activities.
Advertising agency Havas and publisher Louis Hachette Group were also listed separately on the Amsterdam and Paris exchanges this morning.
Vivendi acquired Canal Plus in 2000 and analysts had predicted an equity value for the business of around £5 billion, although at its current value of £2.5 billion it still dwarfs this year’s other listings.
The company started life in France in the mid-1980s as a pay-tv channel and today operates directly in more than 50 countries across Europe, the US, Africa and Asia with more than 25 million subscribers and a total tv audience of over 400 million active users.
Vivendi shares have long suffered from a ‘conglomerate discount’, despite the spin-out of its Universal Music Group (UMG:AMS) on the Amsterdam exchange in 2021 which it was hoped would shine a light on the group’s ‘hidden value’.
