Vivendi SA: A harder story to believe in

Research evidence excerpt

Vivendi SA: A harder story to believe in

dopted

by Vivendi's general meetings, by holding a strong relative majority exceeding 40% (of voting

rights) for many consecutive years, which represents a period that must be considered

significant (our translation). They also advised to refer back to the French market authority,

AMF, to establish whether Bolloré has to bid for Vivendi. The advocate general is the state

lawyer and is supposed to be independent in this case. This arguably increases the chance that

the Court of Appeal rules that Bolloré has control of Vivendi.

Bolloré argues for accounting control of Vivendi

The French Financial Markets Authority has presented to the Paris Court of Appeal an internal

email from the Bolloré Group dated 9 August 2017, titled 'De facto control of Bolloré Group over

Vivendi,' according to BFM Business. At the time, the Bolloré Group was attempting to justify the

consolidation of Vivendi in its accounts under IFRS 10 accounting standards, while holding

15.2% of the capital and 29.6% of the voting rights. The central issue of the case now focuses on

the legal implications of this document. Vincent Bolloré's defense argues that the note was

solely intended to demonstrate compliance with accounting consolidation criteria, without

constituting an acknowledgment of legal control of Vivendi under securities law or corporate

law. CIAM advocates a contrary interpretation.

Court of Cassation ruling

The Court of Cassation ruled on Friday November 28th on whether Bolloré had control of

Vivendi (Pourvoi n°25-14.362 for the whole ruling, 17 pages and 42 articles; press release

summary over two pages). Below is our translation of the French original.

The Court of Cassation was asked: As defined in Article L. 233-3, I, 3° of the French Commercial