Vivendi SE (EPA:VIV)
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Apr 28, 2026, 5:35 PM CET
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Earnings Call: H2 2024

Mar 6, 2025

Operator

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Vivendi Full Year 2024 Earnings P resentation. This conference will be hosted by Mr. Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, and Mr. François Laroze, Member of the Management Board and CFO. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. During the call, you'll be in listen-only mode, however, during the Q&A session, analysts will have the opportunity to ask a question, and this can be done by pressing star one on your top of the keypad to register your vote or your question. In order to allow as many analysts as possible to ask questions, can you please limit yourselves to one question and no follow-up questions? If at any point you require assistance, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. And I'd like to turn the call over to your host this evening, Mr.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine
Chairman of The Management Board and CEO, Vivendi

Thank you very much, and good evening to everybody. As you're aware, 2024 was an exceptionally busy year for Vivendi, marked by the spin-off project and the respective listings of Canal+ Group, Havas, and Louis Hachette Group. This operation was completed on a tight schedule running from December 2023 until the approval of the spin-off by 97.5% at the extraordinary general meeting on December 9th, 2024. Following this intense period, the Vivendi Group is now composed of a portfolio of listed investments managed dynamically, including, among others, Universal Music Group, Telecom Italia, Banijay, and MediaForEurope, and an operational asset with Gameloft, which we continue to support in its transformation into a multi-platform game publisher. The value of these assets as of December 31st, 2024, amounts to over EUR 7.1 billion, including EUR 6.9 billion in listed securities.

For 2024, the re-evaluated net asset, which reflects the debt-adjusted estimate of the value of all listed and unlisted assets of the groups, stands at EUR 4.8 billion, after accounting for EUR 2.1 billion in debt and EUR 0.3 billion in liabilities. The 2024 accounts are thus impacted by EUR 5.7 billion due to the fair value adjustment of the spin-off assets, a purely accounting effect. As mentioned earlier, Vivendi is committed to a major transformation project aimed at creating value for all stakeholders. We are now a few weeks past the first day of trading, which was December 16. As you can see on the screen, Vivendi has risen by 15% since the beginning of the year and is outperforming the SBF 120 index to which it is now linked. François will shortly discuss the details of our performance over the past year.

If you will allow me, a few informative words about the newly listed entities to highlight: the exceptional performance of Havas, which closed a historic year. The very strong results of Louis Hachette Group, which combines Lagardère and Prisma Media. And Canal+ Group's achievements of key milestones in becoming one of the leading players in the industry. And it's fair to say that if the activities resulting from the spin-off have not yet reached to date the expected level of value creation, we remain very confident that the anticipated valuations will be achieved. Thank you very much, and I will now hand over to François.

François Laroze
Member of The Management Board and CFO, Vivendi

Thank you very much, Arnaud. I will walk you through the figures of the group for 2024. First of all, our key figures with this portfolio of EUR 7.1 billion. As Arnaud mentioned, the net asset value of EUR 4.8 billion, which is EUR 4.69 per share. In terms of P&L, it's a revenue of EUR 297, EBITDA minus 1, adjusted net income EUR 111, and the net earnings group share, taking into account the impact of the spin-off negative by EUR 6 billion. If we look at our investment portfolio, you know all the stakes of the Vivendi Group, starting by Universal Music with 9.94%. We remind you about TIM, MFE, Banijay, Telefónica, and Prisa, with no major evolution on these stakes. Just a few words on Lagardère, where after the spin-off, we have invested in Lagardère for representing now 47.3% at the end of the year.

We went up to 5% very recently. We disclosed this threshold last week, and this is mainly due to the exercise of the write-off session in the end of some shareholders of Lagardère. If we look at the valuation of this portfolio, it's for the listed company. It represents EUR 6.9 billion at the end of the year 2024, 4.4 coming 4.5, let's say, coming from UMG. The rest with Telecom Italia, 0.9, Banijay, 0.7. The remaining coming from MFE, Telefónica, Lagardère, and Prisa. If we spend a few seconds on Gameloft, which is our operating business unit, the revenue went down from 2023 - 2024 from 311 - 293. It's a 5.7% decrease. Nevertheless, due to a very positive and talented cost management, the Gameloft team management has been able to increase the EBITDA from EUR 5 million- EUR 8 million between 2023 and 2024.

And if we were to compare the before restructuring charge, it's an increase from EUR 10-14 million, confirming the very good performance of Gameloft. We have reminded the geographical split of our revenues, with North America being the first region, at 45% of the revenues, and then Europe, 37%, Asia, and Latin America. If we have a look at the net asset value, for which we gave you the figures, EUR 4.8 billion, we start with the portfolio valuation we have already described of EUR 7.1 billion, and then we deduct the net debt, which is EUR 2.072 billion, and we also deduct some liabilities for EUR 311 million. So at the end, we have this net asset value of EUR 4.8 billion, which is EUR 4.69 per share, knowing that we have 1.029 billion shares in our capital.

The financial debt evolution, we started the year with a EUR 2.8 billion net debt, which was the one disclosed as the previous year. Let me rapidly highlight some major events on this financial net debt evolution with the impact of the divestment of our ticketing business early in the second half of 2024 for an amount of EUR 300 million. We also have acquired EUR 389 million of Lagardère shares, some of which have been part of the split and some other have been kept after the split. We have made share buyback for EUR 343 million, mainly exclusively on the first half of the year, and we have paid dividend to our shareholders for a little bit more than EUR 250 million . If we look at the loan to value, we refer to this net debt of EUR 2 billion and EUR 72 million .

This net debt comes mainly from the margin loan we have set up during the fourth quarter 2024 with five banks, five international banks. To this margin loan, we had the commercial paper from which we have EUR 450 million at the end of the previous year, and our bank loans and other debt for EUR 197 million. So at the end, we have this adjusted net debt of EUR 2 billion, 72 million. And if we compare it with the market value of our investments, it's a 30% loan to value ratio. If we look at our income statement, let's focus on the revenues and EBITDA. Tell you that our revenue is mainly coming from Gameloft, and reminding you that the figures of 2023 are the one which has been restated in accordance with the IFRS 5 rule.

So the 2023 figures are the ones restated on the current perimeter, excluding all the impact of the spin-offs which have left the group. The revenue went down, as I explained, due to Gameloft by 4.9%, and the EBITDA, which was EUR 333 million negative last year, is slightly negative at EUR 1 million, including the Gameloft performance, EUR 8 million, the corporate cost for EUR 126 million, and the Vivendi share of UMG earnings that we account for in the EBITDA for EUR 120 million compared with EUR 94 last year. If we go to the full P&L, starting from this EBITDA of minus one, we have the impact of the amortization and depreciation of intangible, mainly the goodwill impairment that we did for Gameloft for an amount of EUR 140 million.

We also have accounted the settlement of the agreement with institutional investors during the first half 2024 for EUR 96 million, negative 96. So our earnings from continuing operation is a loss of EUR 183 million after the positive interest and the income for investment coming from the dividend of MFE, Banijay, or Telefónica, and then if we add the impact of the earnings from continuing operation, as Arnaud mentioned, as the impact of the fair value adjustment of the distributed assets based on the opening share price on December the 16th for EUR 5.7 billion. That's the reason why the net income group share is a loss of EUR 6 billion and EUR 4 million . Nevertheless, our adjusted net income, which represents the recurring result of the group, is positive by EUR 111 million .

As a conclusion, I will remind that these figures have been strongly impacted by the spin-off of the group into four entities. Let you know that we will release our 2025 Q1 revenues on April 28th, and that we will propose an ordinary dividend to the shareholder meeting of April 2028 of EUR 0.04 per share, represent a yield of 1.5%, roughly EUR 40 million, and that the dividend should be paid on the 2nd of May if confirmed by the shareholders during the shareholder meeting. So that's where we are for 2024, and with Arnaud, we are at your full disposal to answer any of your questions.

Operator

Thank you very much, Mr. Laroze. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you have any questions, please press star one on your touch-tone keypad and just make sure that your line is not muted to allow your signal to reach our equipment. So that is star one for questions. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to remind you once again, if you have any questions, please press star one on your touch-tone keypad at this time. We do not appear to have any questions coming in at this time. Mr. de Puyfontaine, I'll return the call back over to you. Oh, one moment, please, sir. We just have a question popped in now, and a couple of them. The first question is coming from Sami Kassab of BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Sami Kassab
Equity Analyst, BNP Paribas

Thank you very much and good evening, gentlemen. One question, can you please remind me of the long-term strategy with the video games asset, please? Thank you.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine
Chairman of The Management Board and CEO, Vivendi

Thank you for your question. We are happy about the current performance of Gameloft, which has delivered numbers in a year without new launches, which has enabled the company to show that its foundations are ready for a bright future. Our strategy is to be able to generate organic growth while increasing margins in terms of operation and to be in a position to seize potential acquisition, bolt-on acquisition, to grow the size of the company. We have read in the press some speculation about our willingness to exit the game operation, which is invalid information.

Operator

Thank you very much, sir. Our next question is coming from Eric Ravary of CIC. Please go ahead.

Eric Ravary
Financial Analyst, CIC

Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my question. First one is on the corporate cost level. So it started to reduce in last year. Are you planning to reduce it further in the coming years? And what could be the sort of normative corporate cost level for the new Vivendi? And second question on Telecom Italia, could we have an update on the situation there and what could be the solutions for you to potentially sell your stake? Thank you.

François Laroze
Member of The Management Board and CFO, Vivendi

Thank you for your question. We don't give you precise figures on the evolution of the corporate cost. Nevertheless, we can give you a trend. I reminded you that some people who have left the Vivendi group following the split and who have joined the different spin-offs, it's more than 25 people who have left. So this will have a positive impact on the 2025 figures. And we also focus on reducing all type of OpEx. So we have a plan, ambitious plan to keep on reducing, but we won't disclose precisely the ambition for 2025.

Operator

Thank you.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine
Chairman of The Management Board and CEO, Vivendi

As regards to.

Operator

Sorry, sir.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine
Chairman of The Management Board and CEO, Vivendi

Thank you. As regards to the question on Telecom Italia, we have made it very clear that our intention is to sell our stake in Telecom Italia. And this is the plan. So we have seen many speculations and rumors about the situation. But when we are in a position to be able to exit the company in good terms, we'll do it. So it's a very pragmatic and active shareholder position as regards to the sequence of events over the past 12 months. And we want to be very dedicated in getting a solution as regards to the current situation.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you have any questions, please press star one at this time. Okay, sorry for interrupting you earlier, Mr. de Puyfontaine.

François Laroze
Member of The Management Board and CFO, Vivendi

Thank you very much.

Operator

We have no further questions.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine
Chairman of The Management Board and CEO, Vivendi

Well, thank you very much. Have a good evening and see you on the next occasion. Thank you.

François Laroze
Member of The Management Board and CFO, Vivendi

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect. We wish you a very good day and goodbye.

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