Vivendi SE shareholder Artisan Partners is opposing the company’s plan to sell bits of its prized asset, Universal Music Group, including a proposed deal with a SPAC backed by billionaire Bill Ackman, Bloomberg reports.
The move adds pressure on Vincent Bollore’s French media group before shareholders are set to meet on June 22 to vote on a plan to spin off 60 percent of the world’s biggest music company.
Ackman’s Pershing Square Tontine Holdings plans to buy 10 percent of Universal Music Group in a deal that would value the label at $40 billion and make it the largest ever investment by a blank check vehicle. Pershing would invest $4 billion to buy the Universal stake.
“Selling off pieces of UMG to other investors in return for cash is a sub-optimal capital allocation decision,” Artisan portfolio manager David Samra said in a statement to Bloomberg. “We would prefer that Vivendi spin off its entire ownership of UMG to the shareholders in a tax efficient manner.”
Artisan also called the plan to distribute UMG shares to Vivendi stockholders tax inefficient, echoing objections from activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners, which has asked France’s financial market regulator to investigate the spinoff plan. Read more.
