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The Paris Court of Appeal ruled connected Wednesday that French tycoon Vincent Bolloré and his Bolloré Group do not workout power complete media and intermezo group Vivendi.
The ruling, which was confirmed by Vivendi successful a statement, is important because a determination successful nan other guidance could person triggered an obligatory buyout of Vivendi by Bolloré, pinch immoderate estimates suggesting this could person costs nan group much than $10B.
The ruling follows a declare by number Vivendi investor CIAM which began successful nan aftermath of Vivendi’s 2024 breakup, and nan spinning-off of Canal Plus, Havas, and Louis Hachette.
Under that operation, which won nan support of 97% of nan Vivendi shareholders, nan Bolloré Group retained a 29.3% liking successful Vivendi. Under French law, shareholders surpassing a 30% ownership period must motorboat a buyout offer.
CIAM based on that while Bollore’s liking successful Vivendi was nether nan threshold, it efficaciously controlled nan group.
Following Wednesday’s ruling, CIAM partner and president Catherine Berjal said nan investor group would beryllium launching an entreaty astatine nan Court of Cassation.
A erstwhile April 2025 Court of Appeal ruling stated that Vivendi was de facto controlled by Vincent Bolloré and nan Bolloré Group, paving nan measurement for a mandatory buyout. This was past overruled by nan Court of Cassation successful November 2025, which referred nan lawsuit backmost to nan Court of Appeal.
The caller ruling sees Paris’ Court of Appeal cull Attorney General Carla Deveille-Fontinha’s statement that Bolloré did power Vivendi connected nan ground that nan group had “never encountered immoderate opposition” astatine AGMs and that “decisions lacking Vincent Bolloré’s support” were not adopted.
It could besides person a knock-on effect for nan Universal Music Group, successful which nan Bolloré Group owns an 18.4% stake, and Vivendi owns a 13.4% stake. There had been suggestions that nan Bolloré Group would person to waste it’s UMG liking to finance a mandatory Vivendi buyout.
This anticipation has weighed connected nan UMG stock price, while Cyrille Bolloré, Chair and CEO of the Bolloré Group, told nan group’s AGM successful Paris successful May that he had encouraged UMG guidance to reject a $64.4B connection from Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square.
