Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Vivendi Q3 2022 revenues presentation. This conference call will be hosted by Mr. François Laroze, member of management, board, and CFO. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. During the call, you'll be in listen-only mode. However, later on in 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 contacted by an operator. I'd like to turn the call over to your host today, Mr. François Laroze. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.
Hello, everyone. Welcome, and thank you for joining us for the Vivendi Q3 revenue call. One year ago, Vivendi enter in a new era after the spin-off of UMG. The new Vivendi is now well on track, as you will see, and we are all focused on our strategic project based on transformation, international development, and the integration of our different businesses. For the first nine months of 2022, we are very satisfied to report revenues amounting to EUR 7.5 billion, representing an 8.5% growth figure. Now, we'll walk you through the different slide of the presentation, starting by the scope of consolidation. You see on this page that Vivendi has posted a 0.6% organic growth for the third quarter, 4.1% in actual figures, including consolidation and FX impact.
This is a slowdown compared with Q1 and Q2 performances, which were at 7.9% and 3.1% inorganic, but still growing. In cumulative figures, we are 3.7% of organic growth, to which is added a consolidation impact, mainly coming from Prisma, SPI, and CANAL+, and several acquisitions within Havas, and a 1.6% of FX impact, mainly coming from the Euro-dollar conversion rate. Including these two impact, the growth figures of organic growth 2022 amounts to 8.5%. If we move by business units, you see that in cumulative figures nine months, we have this 3.7%. We have Havas still delivering very strong organic growth at 8.7%. CANAL+ quite stable. Editis at minus 0.76%.
All the other businesses being in quite strong growth, including Gameloft, Vivendi Village, New Initiative with Dailymotion. On the third quarter, the organic growth, as I said, is at 0.6%. CANAL+ is -4.9% for different technical reasons we'll elaborate on later. Havas is still very growing fast at 3.2% even at a lower pace than the previous quarter. Editis is at -7.8% growth. Prisma 6.3% organic growth. Gameloft, it has a very high level of organic growth at 45%, mainly due to the success of the new game released early September called Disney Dreamlight Valley, with a very high performance. New Initiative growing also with the good performance of Dailymotion.
Vivendi Village being supported by the comeback to normality on the Vivendi ticketing operation, which are delivering very sound performances. On CANAL+, you see that the figures for the third quarter is -4.9%, mainly coming from STUDIOCANAL performance on which we'll come back. For the international TV, we are still delivering very sound figures. We have a 1.5% organic growth on this quarter. On France, we have a -3.5% organic, but we have to remind that the subscriber base is still growing at a good pace, and this negative organic is mainly due to technical effects, including the end of the sub-licensing of English Premier League to the group Altice.
The performance of the quarter is hit by STUDIOCANAL, -38.1%, but this is due to the comp base with a very high performance on the third quarter of 2021 to some postponement of major films to 2023. We have to point out the fact that including this negative organic growth, STUDIOCANAL is delivering sound figures in terms of results and has no variance at all compared with our forecast. In cumulative figures, organic growth is at -0.2%. We still see this impact of STUDIOCANAL mainly for technical reasons. In Havas, the organic of the quarter is 3.9%, cumulative 8.7%.
As you see in cumulative, all the geographies of the group are doing very well, including the top two of them, Europe, 8.4%, 6.1%, and all the businesses, the business unit of Havas, creative, health, and media, delivering very sound figures. Asia Pacific and Latin America, the two smaller regions are also growing at double-digit growth. On ditis, the perforEmance of the quarter is at roughly at the same level, the performance of the cumulative 7.8%. First of all, we have to remind that the market of publishing has been hit by a strong reduction during this first nine months, so it's a market impact, first of all.
Second, we also have to remind that if we compare the performance of 2022, not with 2021, which has been an exceptional year post-COVID, with 2019 figures, we have an 8% increase of the revenue and even 14% if we restate from the prescribed textbooks, which have done a very high performance in 2019. That's the performance of our revenue in a nutshell. To conclude, just to say that this solid and resilient performances confirm the validity of Vivendi's strategy. We are now looking forward to the remainder of the year with confidence despite the macroeconomic and geopolitical turbulence. I thank you for your attention, and now we are all ready to answer your question in the coming minutes. Thank you.
Thank you much. Thank you Mr. Laroze. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, if you want to ask a question, press star one. If your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. Today's first question is coming from Mr. Omar Sheikh, calling from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Good evening, everyone. My three questions, maybe if I start with CANAL. Could you maybe just give us an update on the status of the VAT issue that you have with the tax authorities in France? When do you expect to hear back from them? How are you thinking about potentially mitigating any impact on your profit next year, whether should the ruling go against you? That's the first question. Secondly, perhaps also on CANAL, if you could just update us on where exactly you are on the subscriber growth in France. You mentioned the subscribers grew in the third quarter. Maybe if you could just quantify that.
Then finally on Havas, could you maybe give us a sense of how the creative and media revenues developed in Q3 on an organic basis, and perhaps how the healthcare business did in the quarter? How is that comparing to how you did in the first half of the year? Thank you very much.
Okay, thank you. First of all, on CANAL+, on the VAT, we are still in the process of negotiation with the French authority. Today, we consider that the Vivendi CANAL+ position is very strong. We remind that more than 90% of the programs are seen on linear TV. We consider that we can prove our operations in CANAL+ are really closer to linear TV than to SVOD. We try to convince that this VAT should remain at the level it is today. To answer the question on the agenda, we consider that we should have an answer in the coming weeks, months.
In case we would be obliged to change the VAT rate, obviously, we will adapt our retail pricing to our customer, and we will be able to mitigate the impact. But today, we are still convinced that today's position and today's level is a good one. On the subscriber base in France, we do not disclose precise figures, but we monitor that month after month. We confirm that all the indicators show this increase of our subscriber base for France, including the pay TV in France. For Havas, here again, we do not disclose the creative, media, and Health & You, but I can confirm that the three business units of Havas have done very well over the last nine months, including the Q3.
It's true that there has been a slowdown of the growth during this Q3 compared with Q1 and Q2, but it's due to the global market which somehow have slowed down itself. The three business units have done very well, all of them during the first nine months.
Thank you, sir. We'll now go to the next question coming from Lisa Yang, calling from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good evening. I have three questions, please. Firstly, in TV, mainly in France, could you quantify the impact of the non-renewal of the sub-licensing of EPL? Was that, you know, the full 3.5% decline or, you know, any sort of call on that would be great. Second question is on Havas. Are you seeing any change in trends so far? Could you maybe update us in terms of the conversations you are having with advertisers currently about end of the year and maybe early next year? Any change of tone, any major trends by sector? Any update will be helpful. Third question on Lagardère Editis. Could you give us an update on the timeline? When did you send the notification to the EU?
When should we be getting an update? What's the sort of timeframe we should be thinking about? Thank you.
On the impact of English Premier League, we'll come back to you because I do not have the precise figures to tell you the impact out of the 3.5%. On Havas, as you know, the performances all the communication companies have been quite good during this first months of 2022. Today we still all the companies are very prudent because we consider that there should be a strong slowdown in the coming months, but to date it has not come yet. We have seen the performances of our peers, which is quite good.
In cumulative figures, Havas is roughly at the level of the two peers who have already announced their figures for the third quarter and cumulative nine months. Today, I think the market is still anticipating some slowdown, which has not come yet. We are prudent enough in terms of cost control, in terms of hiring to be able to face such a slowdown if we do, if it should come in the coming months. For Editis, the full project has now been sent to the antitrust commission. We should receive the completeness in the coming days, weeks. We still have the project to fulfill the listing of the company during the first half of 2023.
Thank you much, sir. We'll now move to Silvia Cuneo, colleague from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead, ma'am, your line is open.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I have first a question on the strategic vision for the book publishing business. Obviously, it's still early days since the Lagardère acquisition has yet to be closed. Just curious about your thoughts around Amazon's recent addition of access to audiobooks for its French subscribers. Do you think that moving from a unit model to unlimited access is good for the industry, or are there any risk of cannibalization, since you have signed an agreement with Editis? Just wanted to hear your thoughts on that. Second question is about your latest views on shareholder returns. Can you please talk about how you're thinking about future buybacks since you've only resumed the buybacks slightly in Q3? And can you remind us of any structural reasons why you had to slow the pace?
I would stop there, too. Thank you.
Okay. On book publishing, I'm not 100% sure to have caught your question, but concerning the Amazon deal. I think today all the Editis management is focused on delivering the sound figures and the agreement to which we refer has no main impact on the business of Editis. Nevertheless, as you said, we certainly have a good perspective in audiobooks, but it remains quite tiny for Editis today. On the buyback, we have stopped the buyback for a few weeks. Today we have 84 million shares which has been bought in the past months.
We still have some shares, more than 26 million to buy, depending on the agreement of the management board. Today, the program of buyback has been stopped. It should resume in the coming weeks or months. At the moment, we have decided to stop this program of buybacks.
Thank you much, sir. The next question is coming from Julien Roch, calling from Barclays. Please go ahead.
François. I have two questions on the buyback. Why have you decided to stop? Is it because you're focusing on M&A? If you could explain the rationale behind stopping the buyback. That's my first question on the buyback. My second question on the buyback is, the AMF recommends to cancel shares that have been bought for cancellation within 24 months. It's a new recommendation. Will you abide by this? When do you need to cancel more shares based on the 24 months? That's my second question. On Editis, you said the full project has been sent to the antitrust, and you intend to list the company in the first half of 2023.
If you could be a bit more precise on the agenda or the calendar in terms of both Editis and consolidating Lagardère? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. On the buyback, the reason why we decided, as you said, is. I would say it's a matter of cash allocation. As I said earlier, there are more than 26 million shares that can be bought. It's more than EUR 200 million. For the moment, we consider it's not the way we invest the money for the moment. It can change rapidly, but at the time we have set on pause our program. On the consolidation of shares, we will follow this instruction of consolidation after 24 months.
A big amount will happen during summer 2023, where we'll have to cancel more than 24 million shares. We have some shares to cancel early 2023, less than 6 million, but the big amount of it will come summer 2023. On Editis, we can't give you some more details to just tell you that during this forthcoming quarter, we will work in discussing with some company that could be interested in investing in the company on the way we have described. Buying a share between 20% and 30% of the company. We are trying to discuss with some company to which we present the group.
We will have to follow the timeline to get the agreement of the antitrust and be able to finalize, as I said, with the buyer, during the first half 2023. We can't be more precise today depending on the answer of the antitrust to our communication of documents.
Thank you much, sir. The next question will be coming from Mr. Christophe Cherblanc, calling from Société Générale. Please go ahead, sir.
Yes, good evening. Three from my side on the smaller units. First one on Gameloft. So nice bump in revenues in Q3. How should we expect that to translate into EBITDA by the end of the year? Do you think the profitability of Gameloft is definitely back in the black? That's the first one. The second one is on Dailymotion. Also nice bump in revenues. How far are you from breakeven? And is it still a EUR 30 million-EUR 40 million loss-making unit this year? The last one is on FL Entertainment. The contribution of FL and Banijay Zodiak used to be recognized in Nouvelles Initiatives. Now you have less than 20%, so is it still consolidated or just recognized as a passive investment? Thank you.
First question is concerning Gameloft. First of all, yes, we have a very good performance of the game, as I described earlier, called Disney Dreamlight Valley. It was the first game to be launched on the OTT system. We are still very confident to deliver sound figures with this game for the fourth quarter. We know we will have a high level of sales. I think it confirmed that the strategy that has been chosen for Gameloft to diversify not only from mobile but to all type of games, is a good one.
The impact of this very good performance of the game will directly be on the EBITDA and we will soon post some figures for the end of the year. On Dailymotion, we are not at breakeven yet. Some months we are breaking even, but not on the whole year. We do not disclose in detail, but clearly the result is improving year after year, and we are on the way to breakeven on a yearly basis. That should come soon. On FL Entertainment, we have changed the way to account now being a shareholder at a lower level, and it's taken in equity now, and it's not anymore in the New Initiative performance.
Thank you very much, sir. We'll now turn to Mr. Matthew Walker, calling from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead, sir.
Thanks for taking the question. I just had two, and apologies if they've already been asked. You spoke before on the last call about wanting to buy some production in the U.S., maybe a minority position. Is that the reason that you one of the reasons that you stopped the buyback? And what progress are you making on that? And are there any other production assets that look attractive? Second question is, can you give us a bit more detail on the impact of the dropping the licensing or LT dropping the licensing on the U.K. Premier League in terms of size of revenue? When does that effect drop off? And how much impact will that have on the CANAL+ profit, please?
Thanks for your question. Thank you. On CANAL+, no, there is no link between the discussion that we have with the company in the U.S., which is a very important one with, I would say bigger amount that the amount at stake for our buybacks. What we just can tell today is that there have been some discussions with this company, which are still ongoing. It's a very complex and long-lasting subject, and we will know more about the result of it, not in the coming months. I think it's a very long-lasting discussions.
On the impact of licensing, I tried to find the figures, but it's EUR 50 million per year sub-licensing for the English Premier League.
Thank you much, sir. We'll now go on to Richard Eary of UBS. Please go ahead, sir.
Good evening, everyone. Just two questions. First of all, just follow up on that, the impact of the EUR 50 million. How much of that was actually in the third quarter? You said it was an annual impact of EUR 50 million, so how much of that was in the third quarter? That's the first question. Secondly, go back to Julien's question about the cancellation of the shares. Can you just talk through what are the implications of you canceling the shares and what does that mean for Bolloré's stake? Assuming that would mean he would trigger going over 30%. If you can just clarify what that would mean.
Thank you. On the first question, it has started during summer, so the impact will keep on in the fourth quarter. It's a recurrent impact on the CANAL+ results. On the cancellation of shares, the impact on Bolloré, what I can tell you is that the Bolloré Group is perfectly aware of the timing of the consolidations which are forecasted. Bolloré Group will make its decision the day when this cancellation comes, but I can't speak on their behalf. They know exactly the timeline of this cancellation program, and they will make their decision during, I think, the first half 2023.
Thank you much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, as we have no further questions at this time, I'd like to call back over to Mr. Laroze for any additional or closing remarks. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone. Have a good evening. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's conference. We thank you for your attendance. You may now disconnect. Good day and goodbye.