(BFM Bourse) – Louis Hachette Group, the new company bringing together Vivendi’s publishing activities and travel retail stores, is making strong progress for its first trading session.
The 2024 IPOs in Paris began with a split. It was then Pluxee, the restaurant voucher and gift voucher business which had been listed on the stock market by Sodexo last February. This stock market vintage should probably end with a…split, that of Vivendi which gave rise to the listing on the stock market of three entities: Canal +, Havas and Louis Hachette Group.
This split project was validated on Monday, December 9, by a large majority of more than 97% of the group’s shareholders during an extraordinary general meeting. The chairman of Vivendi’s supervisory board, Yannick Bolloré, recalled on this occasion the genesis of the project: splitting the company into four to reduce the heavy conglomerate discount. At the end of 2023, before the group announced its split plan, this discount represented 45%, according to Barclays.
Since Monday 9 a.m., three entities have become independent from Vivendi, including two through a foreign listing. And the beginnings are mixed. The return of Canal + to the stock market received a more than chilly reception, its stock losing more than 10% in London while the communications agency Havas did much better, and rose 11% for its first stock market steps in Amsterdam.
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A new page for Louis Hachette Group
Louis Hachette Group, for its part, begins its stock market life in France on Euronext Growth, the compartment reserved for small market capitalizations on the Parisian market. This company was specially created for the occasion by Vivendi with a view to bringing together its assets held in publishing and distribution, namely the 66.5% stakes in Lagardère SA and 100% in Prisma Media.
Louis Hachette Group thus hosts numerous activities, such as the number one in the book sector Hachette Livre, boutique activities for travelers under the Relay brand in distribution, media such as Voici, Géo for the Prisma galaxy or radio Europe 1.
“This new entity will offer each of these activities greater agility to exploit their full growth potential and seize new opportunities to conquer their respective markets in order to maximize value creation for all of Louis’ stakeholders. Hachette Group,” the company explains in a press release.
Each holder of a Vivendi share was thus allocated one Louis Hachette Group share this Monday morning, in addition to one Canal+ and one Havas. On the Paris Stock Exchange, the arrival of Louis Hachette Group is acclaimed. Its title soared by 25%, to 1.4048 euros compared to the technical reference price of 1.12 euros, retained for this split-introduction operation. This brings the company’s market capitalization to 1.40 billion euros.
This will likely be the last IPO on Euronext Growth of the year, after the arrivals of the precision mechanics specialist Odyssée Technologies last Friday, and Lighton, the specialist in artificial intelligence for businesses, at the end of November. .
Why did the conglomerate favor Euronext Growth and not the Euronext Paris market? The management company Phitrust – which was opposed to the split – raised the possibility for Groupe Bolloré (which owns a little less than 30% of Vivendi) to increase its capital without going through a public purchase offer (OPA).
On Euronext Growth the threshold for launching a takeover bid is raised to 50% of the capital of the target company, while it is only 30% on Euronext Paris.
For its part, Vivendi SE gained 36.41% to 2.51 euros to reach 2.58 billion euros in market capitalization. At the end of this split, Vivendi only owns the video game group Gameloft as well as its minority stakes in various companies (Banijay, Telecom Italia, Mediaforeurope, Prisa) including some 9.98% in the record company Universal Music. Group. This clearly threatens its future within the CAC 40 given its very low market capitalization. Euronext’s scientific council must also rule on this point on Tuesday evening.
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2024 BFM Bourse
