Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Vivendi H1 2022 earnings presentation. This conference call will be hosted by Mr. Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, and Mr. François Laroze, a member of the Management Board and CFO. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. During the call, you'll be listen only. However, later on the call during the Q&A session, analysts will have the opportunity to ask questions without any follow-up questions. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question at any time. If at any point you require assistance, please press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Arnaud de Puyfontaine. Please, sir, go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you very much. Hello, everyone. Welcome, and thank you for joining us for the Vivendi 2022 first half earnings presentation. Before starting the call, I would like to warmly welcome François Laroze. François was appointed as Vivendi's CFO last month and is simultaneously serving as Chief Financial Officer at Havas. While some of you already know him, you will now have the opportunity to know him even better. Welcome on board, François. Let me also take the opportunity to sincerely thank Hervé Philippe for his dedication and great contribution to Vivendi. He has been a fantastic partner over the past eight years. I'm particularly happy to continue working with him on several projects. As you know, François's appointment is part of a revamping of our management team. We have put in place a new management board and a newly created executive committee.
Their members have all been promoted from within Vivendi, highlighting the group's exceptional talent pool. We wanted our new management team to better reflect the great diversity of expertise in the group and to better integrate the businesses into our governance by appointing representatives for all our entities. This new team is committed to giving new impetus to our strategic project, which is built on three main pillars. First pillar, transformation. All our businesses need to adapt to a fast-moving competitive environment, rapid changes in consumptions, and new emerging technologies. All of them, without exception, are already fully engaged in major transformation projects. Look at how Canal+ has transformed myCANAL into the leading TV app in France and now deployed in 30 countries in Europe and Africa. Look at Prisma Media.
Prisma Media has successfully undergone its digital transformation, allowing brands to reach new audiences. For example, Gala has become the European media leader on TikTok. By transformation, I'm not only referring to commercial business, I also mean a profound shift towards a more sustainable model in terms of environment and society. Second pillar, internationalization. We are witnessing global consolidation movements in the media industry. If we want to compete with major players, we must build scale to reach a critical size. That's why we strongly support our businesses in their international development. Havas and Canal already generate 80% and 40% of their revenues, respectively, outside of France. We have strong development ambitions for each of our sectors. Third pillar, integration. Vivendi is home to the most prestigious brands in complementary sectors of the cultural and creative industries, which are already working together.
This is what makes us stand out from the competition. In recent months, many joint projects have been launched between our entities. Let me give you just one example. A famous Editis book by Marc Levy, Toutes ces choses qu'on ne s'est pas dites, has just been adapted into our Canal+ series. Other such initiatives are in the pipeline. Creating more value together is at the core of what we do at Vivendi. This strategy has already proven to be successful. We have delivered good results in the first half of 2022. Our revenue improved by almost 11%. As reflected in the 31.5% increase in EBITDA, our businesses continued to show very strong resilience.
The Canal+ Group continued its international development and strengthens its contents offering, notably by winning 100% of UEFA European competition and securing other major sports rights over the long term. I also want to emphasize the remarkable performance of Havas Group. François will give you more details in a few minutes. Looking ahead, we will accelerate our development as a global leader in media, content, and communications. In the coming months, we will move forward with a proposed takeover of the Lagardère Group. Vivendi now holds around 57% of the group share capital following its friendly public tender offer and 22.45% of the voting rights pending approval of the takeover of Lagardère by the competition authorities. To avoid any potential antitrust problems due to its combination with Lagardère Group, Vivendi will examine a proposed disposal of 100% of its subsidiary, Editis.
This proposed transaction would be mainly executed through the distribution of Editis shares to Vivendi shareholders and their simultaneous admission to trading on Euronext Paris. Of course, to be implemented, if applicable, this plan must be authorized by the European Commission and be subject to the information and consultation procedure involving the relevant employee representative bodies. The Bolloré Group, Vivendi's principal shareholder, would sell all of the Editis shares it would receive in the distribution so that Editis would have a stable core shareholder base. The disposal of Editis would clearly be a sacrifice for us. Yet, the project we will explore will enable Editis to preserve its integrity and autonomy while benefiting from solid growth opportunities. As already expressed, this project with Lagardère is an integral part of our strategic worldwide ambition. Another topic I wanted to mention is Telecom Italia. The company is facing numerous strategic and financial challenges.
We have already expressed our views on the plan presented by Pietro Labriola in March, its Amministratore Delegato, based on the creation of separate entities and the sale of the network. As you have read, we are determined to ensure adequate valuation levels that accurately reflect the true value of this asset. Otherwise, we will consider other options. What we know for sure is that we are staying true to our commitment to promote a constructive dialogue in the best interest of TIM and its stakeholders, bringing the added value of our industrial shareholder position within the company. Italy is definitely a key country for Vivendi. As you can see, we are heading into busy and exciting times. As for the general context, we don't yet know what the next months will look like in Europe and globally.
The macroeconomic and geopolitical environment is uncertain to say the least. That's why, despite our good results, we remain cautious. Our group is well-positioned to weather a potentially less favorable second half. We are confident in our fundamentals. A clear strategic vision coupled with great operational agility. Our operational ability to invest in quality content to attract and develop the best talent, the complementarity of our business and the robustness of our business model, and a long-term vision thanks to our principal shareholder, the Bolloré Group. We have all it takes to stay the course. All Vivendi employees around the globe are fully playing their part in rolling out our ambitious development project in culture and creation, business transformation, and value creation for all stakeholders. Thank you for your attention. Let me now hand things over to François.
Thank you, Arnaud. Thank you for your nice words. I'm very proud to start this new journey as a member of Vivendi Management Board. I'm also happy to come back in the field of governance of a listed group that I have known as CFO until 2017. I saw in the list of attendees the first names I'm used to working with, Lisa, Adrien, Julien, Jérôme, some other, Conor, and I'm very happy to interact with you again and looking forward to meeting all the others very soon. Let me walk you through the Vivendi first half results, starting by the key figures. Tell you that the revenues of the first half went up by 10.9% compared with 2021 at EUR 4.8 billion.
Our EBITDA went up by 31.5% to EUR 412 million. The net result is up by 0.5% compared with last year at EUR 488 million. The CFFO is very solid as well at EUR 333 million, 13.8% Above last year. We have a net debt of EUR 776 million at the end of the first half on which I will come back. In the detailed P&L, you will see all the results. I would like just to point out two important one-off impact that we have had on the first half. The first one is on Telecom Italia, on which we have computed a loss of EUR 235 million, reflecting the result of the Q4 2021 and the Q1 2022.
This is a loss of the company for which we have taken our share. The second important one-off impact is the FL Entertainment, FLE operation, by which we have made a capital gain of EUR 526 million, moving our stake in Banijay of 32% to a 19% stake in the new listed FLE company. These two major items explain part of the net result evolution. If we move to balance sheet, you see that we have a very solid balance sheet with a EUR 19.2 billion equity, net debt of EUR 776 million at the end of the first half. Let's spend a few minutes on our financial asset portfolio.
You will see that Universal is still at 10% of share capital, TIM 17%, Lagardère after the takeover has up to 57.35% of Vivendi détention, and this new line of FL Entertainment, FLE, at almost 20%, 19.9% of share capital. MultiChoice, the South African-based TV operation, we saw our stake moving to 20.1%. We have crossed the threshold of 20% right after the 13th of June, early July, on the seventh of July.
Telefónica, Prisa, and MFE-MediaForEurope, no major change in these stakes. If we go to the net debt evolution, as I said, we are moving from a net positive cash of EUR 340 million at the end of last year to a net debt of almost EUR 0.8 billion at the end of the first half. You will see in the bridge that we have returned EUR 0.6 billion to the shareholder through dividends for EUR 0.3 billion and share buyback for the same amount of EUR 300 million. We have acquired the Lagardère share for almost EUR 400 million, representing the 12% of the first part of the takeover bid.
We have spent EUR 0.4 million in different investments, mainly in Canal+ with MultiChoice, but also in Havas that have finalized five deals among the first half. This investment has been partly paid by the very sound CFFO of our business units, which is up to EUR 0.3 billion during the first half. All these inputs explain this move from a positive net cash to this net debt of EUR 0.8 billion. If we move to the operational performance of our main business units, as I said, we have a 10.9% increase of our revenues. It's 5%, 5.5% inorganic. Interesting to know that Canal+ with 3.3% is still growing at a good pace.
Havas has done a very high performance in our first half with 19.9% of gross revenue, 11.8 inorganic, which is very good performance for the first half. Editis was down by 7.5%. If we move to EBITDA, same thing again, the main business units are delivering very sound EBITDA, Canal+ at EUR 337 +2.5% compared with last year. Havas EUR 112 +27.8%, but only 13.6, which is already high inorganic after some perimeter and FX impact.
At group level, it's 16.9% for the control business, to which we had the income from operational equity affiliates, mainly UMG and Lagardère, for EUR 46 million, which goes to EUR 412 million total EBITDA, Vivendi, which is 31.5% ahead of last year. In terms of scope and currency impact, we have disclosed this 10.9% actual or increase of the revenue with five point four coming from organic, four point one coming from consolidation scope, mainly Prisma. That is completed for the first time six months during this first half, but also other Canal+ acquisition and the Havas one I already disclosed. If we move to the EBITDA, the organic is 6.9%.
If we add to this organic, the consolidation scope impact of seven point six and the FX positive of two point four, we have our 16.9% increase of the EBITDA control business. If we enter into the main business unit of the group for Canal+, very sound figures as I describe at 3.3% of revenue increase. All the geographies are delivering very high performance. International TV at 7%, mainly coming from Africa and Western Europe, Eastern and Western Europe. Mainland France, which is very good news as well, is going up by 3.7%. I think that it's for the whole France, and we have a very high level of premium subscriber base, which is growing at a good pace as well.
StudioCanal is negative in organic growth, but due to some one-off in 2021 with no impact on the EBITDA, which is higher than last year. The CFFO is also a good signal of the very good performance of Canal+ during this first half, with a very high level of EUR 519 million for the first half, 2022. In terms of subscriber base, we have the same trend, obviously, with 1.5 million subscriber more than last year, 14.3 in international, 9.6 on France. All of our geographies going up, Africa, Europe, and as I said earlier, France, which has 550 in self-distribution and 100 in wholesale. Havas Group, very very sound performance as well.
As I said, 19.8% in net revenue, 11.5% in organic growth, which is at the highest level of the industry with Omnicom, better than some of our peers. All the geographies are delivering very high performance. Europe 17%, North America almost 18%, Asia Pacific and Africa 27%, and Latin America, which is a smaller region, is delivering 55% organic. This good performance is due to nice wins in all our business, Havas Health & You, Havas Media, and Havas Creative, which have achieved new business, record new business during this first half.
The performance in EBITDA, which is up by 28% from EUR 87 to EUR 112, is due to the high level of revenue and to a strict cost control that we have applied during the last two years. Today, Havas is able to deliver a high level of profitability at 9.3% on the first half. For Editis we have the revenue of EUR 344 million, which is down by 7.5% compared with last year, with this impact on all our business unit literature, education and distribution, as you see. Important to say that first of all, the market of the edition has been down during this first half, which explained this trend.
Second important things to say that Editis is always hit by some seasonality impacts and as always, a very higher second half compared with the first one, and that will certainly be the same trend in 2022. Third important things to say that if we compare with 2021, we have this negative trend, but 2021 was exceptionally high due to the impact of the pandemic. If we compare with the last reference year before pandemic, which was 2019, we saw that we have a high level of revenue increase at 12.4% and also on all the business unit of Editis. In terms of EBITDA, due to this evolution of revenue, we are down from EUR 10 million last year to the breakeven for the first half.
Knowing that too, in addition to this impact in revenue, we have some negative impact as well on the paper price that hit all the industry, Editis as the others. For the other businesses, Prisma Media, first of all, we see the increase of the revenue, which is due to the scope impact as we have only taken one month in 2021 and six months this year, which explained the very high increase of the revenue. If we compare in organic growth, so without any perimeter impact, the organic, it's 7.4%. The other important evolution is for Vivendi Village, moving from EUR 23 million last year to EUR 76 million, and it's due to the return to normality in our Vivendi ticketing operation, which explained this very high level of revenue compared with last year.
In EBITDA, we have a positive trend in most of all these other businesses. Prisma going up from EUR 4 million-EUR 21 million, including some positive one-off in the agreement we have signed with Google for the neighboring rights. Gameloft, which is down compared with last year with some delays in launch of new games. But again, this delay will have positive impact on the second half. Village is moving from EUR -12 million-EUR -3 million, due to this return to normality I was referring to in the ticketing. A new initiative are doing better with Dailymotion still making losses, but we're in a very positive trend in both operational KPI and financial results.
The corporate is better than last year, mainly due to the positive evolution in some Italian fees we had last year. As a conclusion, what we could say that we have a very positive performance of all our controlled business with the main two businesses, Canal+ delivering very high level of EBITDA during this first half, and Havas delivering the biggest part of our growth during this first half in terms of revenues and profitability. Here, here is for my presentation and now ready to answer your questions.
Thank you so much. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question on today's call, it is star one on your telephone keypad. Please be advised that there will be no follow-up questions today. Again, it is star one on your telephone keypad. The first question is coming from the line of Omar Sheikh from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now unmuted, and you may go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. I have a couple of questions, if I could. Maybe the first one for François. I just wanna ask you, François, how cyclical or sensitive to the macroeconomic conditions you expect Canal and Havas to be in the second half of next year, this year rather, and into next. What are you planning? What are your planning assumptions in terms of costs for both those businesses? Are there sort of action plans to reduce costs already? Do you have contingency plans? Maybe you could just talk a little bit about that. And then secondly, maybe one for Arnaud. I just wanna ask about the portfolio of listed assets. I guess the two sort of key things for me are the plans for MultiChoice.
First of all, you know, why did you go to 20%? What are your ultimate ambitions here? Do you think MultiChoice could form part of the second leg that you talked about in your strategy to internationalize Vivendi? Finally, on UMG, obviously there's a lockup, I think ending at the end of September of next year. What's your current thinking about how long you wanna keep that stake? Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you, Omar. Let's answer your first question concerning the cyclical operation of Canal+ and Havas. The most important thing is to say that today we have not faced any major impact of the current macro on these two businesses. It's very positive that at the end of the first half, neither Canal+ nor Havas have experienced major evolution in their revenue base during this first half. Nevertheless, we remain extremely cautious because we know that the macro environment should hit us at one time or another, and therefore we are already ready to adapt our level of revenue of course to the level of revenue in case we should be hit by such impact.
Today we are already ready in Canal+ and in Havas to reduce costs, as we have done over the last two years when facing some headwinds. Important to say that we are ready to face it, but we have not faced it yet.
Just as a complement of François' answer, I would also say that we've got some of the past action are also a base of thinking about how we will navigate in uncertain environment, and this is what we have done during the pandemic in 2020. I think that all our businesses have shown resilience and the capacity to manage the business in turmoil. I guess that this is the mindset as regard to the way we approach the second half. As regard to MultiChoice, I mean, when you see the results of Canal+, I mean, they are powered by the international development, number one. Number two, we said that clearly the strategic agenda for Canal+ is to grow its subscriber base.
This is one of the priority. For our businesses at the level of Vivendi, we want to get an acceleration of the internationalization of our different businesses. MultiChoice is just an illustration of this move. We have a good understanding of the market in which the company operates, and we have confidence in the long-term growth prospects globally on the African continent. We have exchanges with the management team at MultiChoice, and we are happy about the level of communication and potential common initiative with what is like the mirror of Canal+ in sub-Saharan French-speaking environment with the English-speaking African continent. As regards to UMG, you're absolutely right, Omar.
We have no preconceived plan as regards what will happen next after the pay period till September 2023. What I can tell you is that we are playing the role of a shareholder at Universal. We have seen the numbers that have been disclosed a couple of days ago at Universal Music Group. We always have been big fan of the management team of Universal Music Group under the leadership of Sir Lucian Grainge. We look forward to getting progress in the future. We do believe that the dynamic of the music industry are positive. We hope and we trust that it's going to be there in the long term.
I can't comment any more about what's going to be our position in due time. Thank you, Omar.
Thank you for your question. The next question is coming from the line of Lisa Yang from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now unmuted, and you may go ahead.
Good evening. I have a few questions, please. Firstly on the buyback, I noticed it's stopped on June 24th, so a bit more than a month ago, when I think the share price ranged between EUR 9.3-EUR 10.1. I think previously you've been buying stock quite actively below EUR 11. I'm just wondering what was the main reason behind you know stopping that buyback. What would make you resume the buyback, and what would you consider an attractive price. Is that below EUR 9 or any color on that would be helpful. I think the second question is on Canal+.
Obviously, there's been some talks about potentially increasing the VAT on the basic packages from 10%-20%. I'm just wondering if you can give us any updates in terms of where we are, what could be the timing of the implementation of that VAT increase? Any sense of the potential magnitude of the impact for Canal+ and how you plan to offset that? The third question is on Editis', obviously, the profit was a bit quite low in H1. You mentioned higher paper costs. Just any thought in terms of the margin to expect for the full year? Thank you.
Well, I will start by Editis. You're absolutely right that the numbers are in H1 2022 below 2021. I would say that 2021 has been an exceptional year post-pandemic, which has given a kind of a push up in terms of the numbers. If you compare to on the like-for-like basis, comparing apples to apples, and you compare the first half 2019 to the first half 2022, which is comparing apples to apples, you would see that historically we have a seasonality in the publishing operation, and in 2019 it was a loss-making operation.
Relative to standard results of the publishing industry and the profile of this seasonality, the numbers, despite being below last year for the reasons I just explained, are nonetheless better than they used to be in the past, number one. I would add on top of that obviously, Editis has to navigate through a difficult period through the kind of a big push on the paper price, which has an impact on the P&L. The total impact has been EUR 2 million, which represents more or less 0.6 points of margin at so at EBITDA level. But also we have been faced with three different factors. Number one, pre-electoral, it's a French business, French-speaking business, but with a big chunk of its turnover in France.
Pre-electoral period in the book publishing industry has always been tougher than in normal years. Number one, it's been quite intense political agenda in France on the first semester. Second thing is we've seen a dip in consumption on the first from 24th of February due to the Ukraine war. We have seen a very deep dip into the level of people in the different channel of distribution of books, which has impacted the numbers. Last but not least, we also have this inflation environment question mark about consumer purchasing power, which is not helping. It has been relative to a normal year, I would say, a sequence. What I can say is the early signs of July are more compelling.
I'm happy to report that Editis is number one, three, five in terms of release with Marc Levy, with Franck Thilliez, among others, and that in terms of the back to school period, which is called in France, La Rentrée Littéraire. We have some books in the pipeline, which are pretty compelling. We expect the second half to be able to not only compensate for the increase of our cost base with a radical management of the company and its cost base, but also to get kind of in the pipeline the launch of some blockbuster which will help the numbers on the second half.
Okay. Just a word on the buybacks to answer your question. Just to remind you and update you on the current situation. We have today 81 million shares owned by the group, which is 7.31% of the capital. We have another 1.8% to acquire in the envelope given by the last general meeting, which is roughly 20 million shares that we could buy in the coming weeks and months. For the time, as you said, we have not acquired any shares since mid-June 2022, but it will depend on the evolution of the stock price in the coming days.
We will see. We will adapt ourselves depending on the level of this share price. A word on VAT, which was your second question. As you know, there have been some announcements by the French tax authority that the VAT for Canal+ should go from 10%-20%. There are still discussions to see whether this decision is a final one or not. Certainly, we'll have more news in mid-September coming from the question we have raised to the tax authority. We do not know the answer, obviously. In the meantime, we have already warned our clients who are subscriber of the month of September that they may face a VAT increase due to this decision of the tax authority.
Month after month, we will decide and we'll adapt our position to clients, depending on the answer and the questions we will have from the tax authority.
Thank you so much for your question. The next question is coming from the line of Adrien de Saint Hilaire from Bank of America. Your line is unmuted, and you may go ahead.
Thank you very much. Yeah, good evening, François. Delighted to be working with you again. I've got a few questions, please. The first one relates to Canal+ and M&A. There's been a lot of articles in the press recently about some interest in some U.S. assets, but also OCS, possibly also in Italy and Spain. Can you just talk to us about like your ambitions in terms of M&A for Canal+? Secondly, just wondering if you could give us some more color on what you would expect for the Havas like-for-like growth in the second half of 2022. The last question is, in the release, you mentioned about a distribution of Editis shares to shareholders. Why not consider selling Editis to a trade buyer?
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Adrien. I will start by your last question. Our objective, in the exchanges and the different scenario we've been working with, over the past few months, is to anticipate in our operation and the friendly tender offer on Lagardère, the consequence of the publishing asset in France. Combining the Hachette, Lagardère publishing operation in France with Editis's, we knew from the outset that we would have a problem with the distribution organization. We couldn't merge both. We would have for the small size called Livre de Poche problem, because with Pocket and with Livre de Poche, we would go way above the market share competitive limit.
We have in education between the brand Nathan and the brand Hatier. We knew that there would be some hurdles. Now, in terms of our objective from the Vivendi side, but also in terms of having exchanges with our advisor and so on and so forth, we put some objective in the remedies, and the remedies were threefold. Number one, we wanted for the remedy to be a sustainable long-term and viable proposition for the future. We wanted the remedy to be sustainable from the beginning. Second, to have remedies that would be easy, simple in terms of execution and readable, just to help all the process with the competition authority at EC level.
We didn't want to get a solution that would change the balance within the market on the competitive side. Obviously keeping in mind that the remedy, we wanted a remedy to be the best one for all the stakeholders around the situation. That's the reason why what we have recommended is, and what we have been given an authorization from the supervisory board is to manage the process and to check its compliance with two things. Number one, the competition European Commission authority and also the personnel representatives in the different parts of the business. We wanted a solution to be the best one for all the stakeholders around the situation, Editis, Lagardère, and Vivendi.
We also, no need to say, we've got a reference shareholder at Vivendi. In the process, as we announced it, there would be a commitment from the Bolloré Group to dispose its stake within the new Editis, which would be 29.7%, to a reference long-term industrial shareholder to maintain the anchor shareholder base for the future and the implementation of the strategy at Editis in the long run. Sorry, but you gave me, Adrien, the opportunity to be a little bit more specific about the announcement of this evening.
To your question, which is what not to sell to a trade buyer, it's just because, well, it would just simply change the dynamic of the competitive market in France, and it will open a new question that we want to answer quickly. Obviously, we want a fast process. You have seen that in industry there has been a destabilization from some behavior of some competitors in the environment. We have seen the situation which instability is not good when you're talking about more specifically creative business. Again, it's a very pragmatic approach taking into account all the interest and all the criteria that we have set up. The options that you have raised was not compliant with our objective.
I hope that I've been comprehensive in my first answer. I will then move on to your first question, Adrien, which is about Canal+, M&A strategy. Well, the mandate and the objective on Canal+ is to go from strength to strength in its international development. I guess that when you see the track record in terms of M&A at Canal+, it's a really good track record. We announced that we wanted to reach the 30 million subscribers threshold by 2025. I guess that every opportunity of the market which is matching the strategic agenda of the company are opportunities that are scrutinized by us.
This is what's currently happening in the different situation that you are referring to. No further information to share with you at this stage. But we are working, and we'll see what are going to be the next steps. Maybe on Havas, you want to take the question, François?
Yes, on Havas, it's true. Havas has delivered a very high level of organic growth during the first half, 11.5%. Obviously, on the second half, the pace should reduce a little bit, for two reasons. First of all, we have a not as good as a first half comp base, as we have delivered a double-digit organic growth during the second half of 2021. The second is, as I said earlier, we should face some headwinds in some of our businesses. We certainly will be growing again, but certainly not at the same pace and confirming a high level of organic for the whole year. We are still, I would say, cautiously optimistic.
Thank you so much for your answers and questions. The next question is coming from the line of Julien Roch from Barclays. Your line is unmuted, and you may go ahead.
We
First question is on Telecom Italia.
Arnaud, you said that you were examining in detail the plan for the new CEO and that you wanted to maximize value. If that was not the case, you would consider other option. Can you elaborate? What does that mean? Would you be willing to sell? Actually, my other questions were asked, so I'm only gonna have one.
Bonsoir. Bonsoir, Julien. Let's be specific. Telecom Italia has always made the headlines, and we have had a few of them over the past few months and weeks. What I'm referring to is that you have seen Pietro Labriola, the new amministratore delegato, making a presentation about his strategic vision during the capital market day on the seventh of July. He made then a roadshow to meet with some investors over the past few weeks. We're gonna have the board on the third of August, next week, on the H1 results. My comment is the one. Based on the situation where there's been this kind of MoU signed between Telecom Italia, KKR, Macquarie and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti as regards to a potential option, which is Rete Unica.
Rete Unica is ultra-broadband and a single network to get combined operations between Open Fiber, which I remind everybody that is owned by 60% by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and by Macquarie, which bought 40% from Enel and Telecom Italia for its network, bearing in mind that Cassa Depositi e Prestiti is a shareholder below the close to 10%. There is this opportunity which has made all headlines, and we say that Vivendi that as regard to this as a major shareholder of reference shareholder of Telecom Italia, we could see such an operation under a different condition. Which is A, about getting the right value.
B, getting the right level of balance sheet for the network and for the remaining part of the business. C, getting the right level of personnel in the different part of the business. Last but not least, getting the right relationship between the ServCo and the NetCo. If we were not or if the negotiation were not to be followed by a formal offer that could be acceptable, at the end of the day, we will go back to other options which have been mentioned and developed by Pietro Labriola.
Which is, we have to think about the future of the company, where we will be able to manage an infrastructure business on the one hand and do the right job on the consumer side of the business, the B2B side of the business. We shouldn't forget about the situation of TIM Brasil, which is a good situation. We've got an environment where there are different options. You may have seen the approach which had KKR in autumn last year, which was unsolicited, which was a kind of a approach. You have seen some headlines about CVC potential interest at a certain stage, which was then denied quite recently as regards the potential operation on the ServCo. You've got many rumors about the situation.
The thing that I know is that this business has now a head, who is a man who knows about communications business. He has built a team who at last is a team who knows how to run the business. There is a vision within the current complexity, but also diversity and in my view, potential value creation of the business in the long term. Many options available as regards the future of Telecom Italia. An absolute focus on creating confidence with shareholders. That is to say, to deliver on what is announced and planned by the management. It's a question of reliability and trust building, number one.
Point number two, it's the capacity to manage cost-based efficiencies, to manage the evolution on a very highly competitive market in the consumer side, but also to accelerate the growth on the B2B side. You know, all the project about cloud and also AI and so forth, that's very important. At the end of the day, being able to generate a level of cash flow generation to decrease the level of debt, because obviously one of the problem of the company is the debt level. That's the reason why I'm referring, and I've been a bit long to my answer to your question, Julien, but you were one question player this evening. I take the opportunity just to say that it's a long story, but it's still a story that we do believe that can create value.
We are, as the reference shareholder of Telecom Italia, behind the management team to make it work and, at last, to be in a position to showcase that this company has a value which is much greater than the current share price. Thank you, Julien.
Okay. Merci beaucoup.
Merci. Bonsoir.
The next question is coming from the line of Christophe Cherblanc from Société Générale. Your line is unmuted and you may go ahead.
Good evening. I had two questions. One was on a clarification on the VAT situation at Canal+. I understand that you said that you would be resetting the prices, but I just want to make clear, is it something you can do immediately, or do you have to wait for the end of the 12- and 24-month subscription? In that case, what would be the short-term impact in 2022, 2023 and possibly 2024? Waiting for the time that the prices are effectively raised. The second one was on
I know, I understand you don't want to be too specific on Starz and possibly Lionsgate, as we have read in the press. Just as a principle, would you be open to invest a minority stake in that kind of asset? Bearing in mind that you were mentioning the successful M&A of Canal+, but they've always taken control of other operation. That would not be the case if it was a minority stake. Thank you.
Okay. On the first question concerning the VAT, to make some more information. As I said earlier, we will adapt our VAT rate month by month with the anniversary date being at the end of the contract. We won't be in a position to change all the VAT if the new rate was to be confirmed. That would have an impact on our EBIT, certainly. It's too early to put into figures. We will wait until the end of the discussion with the tax authority. Certainly if the rate was confirmed at 20% for all our business, it will impact severely our results.
One more time, nothing can be computed or even forecasted today.
Just on top of what François said, it's also the capacity we have, what is so-called cohort of subscription. As regards to what's going to be the end game, there will be a management of this pricing, which is going to be monitored cohort after cohort, linked to the time span of the subscription life in our customer base. As regards to your second question, Christophe, I guess that, you know, yes, there's been a really great track record in terms of acquisition and as we have seen in the past few years.
Also there's been some situations where there's been a minority position and quite successfully operated, like, for instance, the minority position in Banijay, then Banijay and Endemol Shine. The position which is now our position, close to 20% is the newly listed FL Entertainment. I mentioned another situation which is we have crossed the 20% threshold in MultiChoice. In MultiChoice, this is a position just to think about the next step. We are a happy shareholder receiving dividend from MultiChoice, so it's a good investment. We received EUR 21 million in 2021, for instance. My position is that the approach is very pragmatic. It opens different opportunities.
I guess that a minority is not something that we wouldn't contemplate if we are given all the rationale and all the elements to believe that it's a wise investment in the context of our strategic plan.
Christophe.
Thank you so much for your question, Christophe. The next question is coming from the line of Richard Eary from UBS. Your line is unmuted, and you may go ahead.
Yeah, many thanks. Just three questions. Just firstly, on the buyback, you mentioned on the call that there's still 1.8% left within the current envelope. Can you just talk us through what are the next steps if you actually want to expand that buyback? I presume that's subject to an AGM approval, but just to clarify that as well. The second thing is just on Editis, basically, let's say in specie distribution. How are you thinking about setting a valuation for that asset and how do we think about that? Just thirdly, just on MultiChoice, can you just refresh us in terms of South African ownership levels and obviously now crossing that threshold of 20%, what's next for your consideration in that asset?
Just on the first question, concerning the buyback, just to confirm that today we have no other agreement but the 1.8% to which I referred, which is 20 million shares. That's the current headroom we got in terms of acquisition in the coming months. Your second question, I'm not 100% sure to quote it. Could you repeat the second question, please?
When you do, I mean, if you basically end up doing an in-kind distribution of Editis, how does the valuation get set on that distribution?
That's they're gonna be a parity as regard to the system. As we announced, we are going to start to work on the project with advisor, and we'll be able to be more specific in due time. We can't further elaborate at this stage. As regard to the mechanism for MultiChoice, I mean, this is MultiChoice not under the rule of operation in the context of South African regulation. I think that we've got to the limit of 25% in the current legal framework environment. As regard to this very specific and detailed question, I will ask my team just to provide you with further clarity and details later.
Okay, thank you so much for your question. The next question is coming from the line of Matthew Walker from Credit Suisse. Your line is unmuted, and you may go ahead.
Thanks. Good evening. Thanks for taking the question. I've got two. The first one is, do you think you'll be able to increase the Canal+ EBIT next year because you bought the Champions League and Europa League rights? That's the first question. The second question is on the buyback. You've mentioned the 20 million shares that you've still got to buy. Maybe could you elaborate on why you decided to stop it at the end of June and, you know, why you were buying at sort of EUR 11, but then it went to EUR 9 and you didn't buy. So I'm a little confused about why that happened. Thank you.
Yeah, on Canal+, it's too early for us to make forecasts for the coming years. What we know is that we have a very sound operation in the international subsidiaries of Canal+, which are delivering very high level of result and cash. We are very confident. In France, it will depends for many factors, including the VAT we have already discussed. It's true, we'll invest a lot, but it's only for 2024 in the new Champions League agreement we have found. Today we are very confident that, taking into consideration and everything being equal, the performance of Canal+ will remain very sound next year at group level. Concerning the buyback, sorry, but it's. I think I just have.
Could repeat what I told earlier, that today we have this 20 million shares to keep on buying in the coming weeks and months, and we decide depending on what we consider the fair price to come on the market. Today it's a management board decision, and that's just the reason why we have not acquired any shares since mid-June. It will come back on our vision and on our decision to consider the fair price. Can't say nothing else. Sorry.
Hello, next question. Do we have a comm problem?
Apologies.
Hello.
The last question is coming from the line of Jérôme Bodin from Oddo BHF. Your line is unmuted, and you may now go ahead.
Yes. Good evening, François. Good evening, Arnaud. Just two small question. The first one on Editis. There is a deterioration of the free cash flow in H1, so just want to check, what's the reason for that? Is there maybe a CapEx plan or anything else? This is for Editis. The second question is, still on Editis, but on the spinoff. I understand that the idea is not to keep any assets, within Editis at the Vivendi level, but, could you maybe spin more than Editis and add some asset to Editis? Thank you.
Yes, Jérôme. On the Editis cash flow, what you can say that the deterioration of the cash flow comes from mainly from the working capital. There has not been a major investment during the first half, so it's obviously plus some negative impact of the working capital, but that should revert during the second half. No, nothing to worry about. More seasonality on the working capital than a negative trend.
On your last question, the mandate that has been given to the management board as regards to the Editis situation, as explained previously, is on the perimeter of Editis. Nothing else.
Thank you, Jérôme.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you everyone for your questions today. There'll be no further questions. I will now turn you over to your host to conclude today's conference.
Thank you very much. Thank you for your attendance. I wish you a fantastic summer and look forward to getting with you again for Q3. Sorry, Q3. Yes, Q3.
Sorry.
call, which is going to be held in November.
October 20.
Sorry. You know, October.
October 20.
October 20. Thank you for this clarification. Definitely need some summer.
Thank you, everyone.
Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Thank you everyone for joining us on today's call. You may now disconnect your handsets. Host please disconnect as well.