Vivendi SE (EPA:VIV)
France flag France · Delayed Price · Currency is EUR
2.066
-0.064 (-3.00%)
Apr 28, 2026, 5:35 PM CET
← View all transcripts

Earnings Call: H2 2022

Mar 8, 2023

Operator

Good evening, everyone, welcome to the Vivendi full year 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, Member of the Management Board and CFO. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. During the call, you'll be listening only mode. Later on in the call during the Q&A session, analysts will have the opportunity to ask 3 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'd like to turn the call over to 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. Hello, everyone, and welcome, and thank you for joining us today. In a few minutes, I will hand things over to François Laroze for a detailed review of our annual results. Before that, I would like to highlight the solidity of our group with another year of double-digit growth. Revenues increased by 10.1% compared to 2021, driven by our 2 main businesses, Havas and Canal+. Group EBITDA increased by 35.6% or 10% for our controlled businesses, proving their resilience. Adjusted net income, excluding Telecom Italia, increased by 19.4%. Net earnings amounted to a loss of EUR 1 billion, which is the results of Telecom Italia's deconsolidation. François will come back to this. I want to warmly thank all our colleagues around the globe for this very solid performance.

The new chapter we wanted to open following the distribution of UMG Group's share capital is off to a great start. 2022 was a turning point for Vivendi. Not only because, as I just mentioned, it was the first full year without Universal Music Group, but more importantly, we took a major step forward in our strategic project, building on the 3 main pillars you are familiar with by now. First, transformation. All our entities have continued their transformation. Let me give you just 3 examples. Gameloft made an important strategic shift by launching its very first multi-platform game, Disney Dreamlight Valley, which is a phenomenal success. Gameloft revenues reached their highest level ever. Moreover, embracing console should make it possible to double our target market. Prisma Media is my second example. Digital now represents 35% of its revenues compared to 31 in 2021.

The group is the leader in digital and video audiences. Every month, it reaches 8 out of 10 French people, thanks to digital. Third example, Editis. The leader in education in France, the group accelerated its transformation thanks to the acquisition and integration of Educlever, the leader in e-learning with 5 million learners. We also moved forward on our second pillar, internationalization. The Canal+ Group continued its dynamic development and, in particular, increased its stake in MultiChoice Group, now owning 30% of its capital. 63% of Canal+ subscribers are outside France. As for Havas, a record of 8 new agencies came on board last year to strengthen our range of expertise in the U.K., Spain, Australia, and China. At group level, 43% of Vivendi's employees are based outside Europe. Our ambition remains global. Third and last pillar, integration.

I talked about during our half-year results conference call, in 2022, we put in place a new management board and a newly created executive committee. All our businesses are now represented. This will facilitate more and more joint projects for more value creation. We created a winning positioning by being at the crossroads of media, communications, and entertainment. For example, it allowed Havas to win a project with EDF in cooperation with other group entities, including Canal, Gameloft, and Prisma, to support the efforts of French people in their approach to energy sobriety. Across all pillars, 2022 was full of achievements. These successes position our group as one of the world leaders in media, entertainment, culture, and communication. In parallel, we continued to shift towards a more sustainable business model.

With a burning planet and a fragmented world, there is no need to remind you of the urgency for companies to have a positive impact. As a content group, we are particularly focused on delivering meaningful, inclusive content and content that contributes to raising awareness on climate change, such as the StudioCanal production Goliath. As I did last year, I would like to point out some of our main ESG developments. You will find more details on the slides and on the appendices. On the environment, our CO₂ emissions, Scope 1 and Scope 2, have been reduced by 10% compared to 2021. On social, we increased the percentage of women within our management bodies. They now represent 38%.

As you know, we also welcome 2 women to Vivendi Management Board, Claire Léost and Céline Merle-Béral, out of 6 members. Looking ahead, we are extremely confident and ambitious for the future for 5 main reasons. The first is the unstoppable worldwide consumer appetite for culture, media, and entertainment. According to a report from PwC, the global entertainment and media industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.6% through 2026. In this dynamic industry, we strongly believe in our ability to make the difference. Because, and this is the second reason for our confidence, we are investing in quality content and building IPs. Having the most extensive and appealing offer possible is key to attracting consumers. Canal+ has, for example, the largest film library in Europe.

Across all forms of content, the brand has devoted EUR 3.5 billion to financing programs in 2022. Third reason, strong and appealing brands that have stood the test of time. Havas is nearing its 2 century anniversary. Canal+ has been around for almost 40 years. Prisma Media, 45 years. They have proven that their capacity to adapt and transform to stay the course. With this, we come to the 4th and 5th reasons, agility and time. In increasingly uncertain environments, agility has become as important as scale. Each of our businesses is agile enough to seize opportunities, innovate, and yes, even surprise. Look at the exciting and expected launch by Prisma of Harper's Bazaar in France. Time, thanks to our principal shareholder, the Bolloré Group.

We provide a long-term vision and give the necessary resources to our business to succeed as we did for Gameloft, enabling it to transform itself from solely mobile to cross-platform. This long-term vision is what allows us to create value for all stakeholders. As you can see on the chart, if you held 1 Vivendi share in June 2014, the value in December 2022 was multiplied by 2.3 with dividends reinvested. Over the same period, the CAC with dividends reinvested posted a performance of 1.8. These coming months will enable us to reach new steps. We are working on finding a solution regarding Telecom Italia. As you know, in January, Vivendi representatives resigned from their role as members of its board of directors. This is why we stopped the consolidation of Telecom Italia share.

This will give Vivendi greater freedom to defend its position outside governance bodies as a shareholder over the long term. We remain determined to ensure that this company's real value and unique network are properly recognized. The words of appreciation extended by the Italian government towards Vivendi last week are an important signal and give us hope in the possibility of opening a new chapter. We are also fully mobilized on the Editis Lagardère matter. We are engaged into a constructive dialogue with the European Commission with a view to obtaining approval for our proposed transaction with Lagardère. We are also pursuing discussion with buyers who have expressed interest in acquiring controlling interest in Editis. We received 3 solid offers and have conducted confirmatory due diligence. The combination of our 2 group, when approved by the European Commission, will offer exciting perspective. I will now hand things off to François.

Thank you for your attention.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Thank you, Arnaud. Good evening, everyone. I will walk you through the result of the group, starting by the nutshell. Reminding that, for year 2022, we have achieved a revenue of EUR 9.6 billion. It's an increase by 10%. EBITA of controlled business of EUR 646 million increased by 10%. If we add to this controlled business, the EBITA coming from the equity affiliates, it goes up to EUR 860 million. It's an increase by 36%. Let's remind that in these revenues and EBITA are excluding Editis, which is now considered as business for sale. The adjusted net income, excluding the Telecom Italia impact on which we'll come back, is EUR 677 million. It's an increase by 19%.

Let's remind that we have almost 36,000 employees, increased by 7% compared with our increase by 10% of revenue confirming the productivity of our main businesses. The financial situation of the group Vivendi is very solid. The net debt is EUR 860 million compared with our shareholders equity of EUR 17 billion. The cash flow generated by our businesses is EUR 594 million, and we still have available credit facilities for EUR 2.8 billion. Let's move to the bridge from our adjusted net income to the net result group share. As we said, we have an adjusted net income of EUR 677 million.

As Arnaud mentioned, we have been in a position to take the impact of the deconsolidation of Telecom Italia, taking the stock price at the end of 2022 with an impact of EUR 1.3 billion from EUR 0.6, roughly, to EUR 0.21 per share. To this impact, we had the income from equity affiliate for Telecom Italia, which was a loss of EUR 393. We have the contribution of Banijay to FRE, which was during the H1, EUR 515. Another discontinued operation impact, which is this year a negative impact, taking into consideration that we have taken the provision of EUR 300 million for entities in our account. We'll come back on it.

Our net result group share is a loss of EUR 1 billion or EUR 10 million compared with this EUR 677 adjusted net income. If we move to the net debt evolution, the group went from EUR 0.3 net cash positive at the end of the previous year to EUR 0.9 net debt. It's an evolution of -EUR 1.2. Important to remind that this evolution of the cash mainly comes from the investment we have achieved during the year 2022. More than EUR 500 million invested in Lagardère shares, EUR 400 million in MultiChoice, and EUR 200 million in various acquisitions made by Canal+ and Havas, on which we'll come back. We have invested more than EUR 1.1 billion in this acquisition, preparing the result of the future.

In the same time, the existing business have delivered more than EUR 600 million of cash flow, which is, which enable us to pay the shareholder return through dividends and buybacks. Let's remind that our average maturity is 4.1 years, and the fixed rate the debt is 99% fixed rate. Let's move to the operational performances of the businesses. If we take the revenue, we have an increase of our revenue by 10%. All the businesses contributed to the extremely good performance, including Canal+, 1.7%, and Havas 18%, but also Prisma and Gameloft.

This 10% is a growth evolution, taking into consideration that we have 5.1% of organic growth, to which we had 3.1 points of consolidation scope impact and 1.9 points of FX impact, which lead to this 10.1% growth. If we move to the EBITDA, we have the same trend with an increase by 10% for the controlled business, again, coming from all our businesses. Canal+ delivering an increase by 7.3% from EUR 480 million to EUR 515 million. Havas with 19.7% of increase from EUR 239 million to EUR 286 million. The other businesses contributing as well as Prisma and Gameloft to this strong increase. If we add the income from the equity affiliates, it's an increase by 36%.

If we come back to the 10% increase of the EBITDA for the controlled business, this come from 4.5% of organic growth, 2.4% from consolidation scope impact, and 3.1% from FX impact, mainly Euro-Dollar conversion rate in Havas. Let's enter into details for our main businesses. Canal+, the number of subscribers at the end of the year is 25.5 million. It's an increase by 1.1 million compared with last year, where we were at 23.7 million subscribers. 15.8 million are in Europe, among which 9.5 million in France, 7.6 million in Africa, 1.2 million in APAC, and 0.8 million in overseas. In terms of results, both international and mainland TV France have contributed to this increase of the revenue.

International TV by 6.4%, TV mainland France by 1.6%. The decrease of StudioCanal is not a decrease, which leaves deterioration of the results. In 2021, there was some business with very low margin which has been canceled this year and therefore, even with a 19.2% decrease of the revenue, the EBITDA of StudioCanal is growing fast this year. If we move to Havas now. Havas has a very strong performance in terms of organic growth with 6.8%. This growth comes from all the geographies. The first of it, Europe with 7.6%, North America, 5.2%, Latin America, 13.6%, Asia, 5.8%. The growth has been strongly and equally shared between the different geographies.

In terms of result, as we saw, it's an increase by 15.8% of the net revenue with 6.8% of organic growth. The EBITDA is increasing by 19.7% and the CFFO by 28%. The increase of the organic growth is 6.8, to which you add the consolidation impact for 2.7 and strong FX impact, very positive. Again, U.S. dollar to euro conversion rate of 6.3. That's the reason why we post this 15.8% growth for Havas. As Arno mentioned already, we have achieved a record year with 8 acquisition of controlling stake during the year 2022. 4 of them in the U.K., 2 in Australia, 1 in Spain, and 1 also in China.

We have been very proud to achieve this major acquisition of the Front Networks company with more than 200 people that will contribute to the growth of the group in Asia in the coming months and years. Prisma Media. Prisma Media has had a stable revenue at EUR 320 million, and the EBITDA is coming from EUR 30 million to EUR 31 million, which is a positive increase and negative by 5.18% in organic. Let's remind that today 35% of the revenue of Prisma is coming from digital. It's a growing number year after year. Gameloft. A few words on Gameloft again, if you see the trend here, after very tough years in 2019 and 2020 with huge losses, Gameloft went back in black figures in 2021, EUR 8 million and 2022, EUR 12 million.

It's an increase by 21% of the revenue, 46% of the EBITDA. It's due to the success of the different games, as Arno mentioned Dreamlight Valley, but not only also Asphalt for the mobile and Oregon Trail for the cross-platform. Ticketing and live of Vivendi Village. It's a very strong increase of the revenue from EUR 102 million to EUR 238 million. This increase is mainly due to the comeback to normality in our ticketing business with the end of the COVID impact. The EBITDA is moving from EUR 8 million loss to EUR 6 million, but with different performance of the business units. The ticketing is doing very well in 2022, with strong recovery of the revenue and high profits. The venues like l'Olympia, Théâtre de l'Œuvre are delivering sound result as well.

This year nevertheless, we have accounting some losses in our touring business. Losses and some restructuring costs as well, which can be considered as one-off costs, which prevent us from having new losses the coming year. Looking at portfolio of financial assets, the total value is around EUR 9 billion, and we have received EUR 196 million of dividend during the year 2022. Let's remind you the main stakes in Universal for 10%, Lagardère 58%, TIM 17%, MultiChoice 21% for the first bigger. In terms of shareholder return, we'll propose to the shareholder meeting, dividend EUR 0.25 dividend per share. If we look at the history, we see that the cumulative shareholder returns since 2014 amounts to EUR 18 billion.

For the year 2022, it's more than EUR 600 million, of which EUR 325 million of share buyback and EUR 261 million of dividends. As of March 8, 2023, Vivendi holds 78.2 million of treasury share, which is a stake of 7% of the share capital. We have an agreement for going up to 10% of the share and still have this agreement of an opera of 50%, and the renewal of this agreement will be proposed to the shareholder meeting. As a conclusion before giving you the floor for Q&As, we can remind the very strong growth of the business, and I would like to stress the fact, as Arnaud mentioned, that we are very satisfied by the performance of our business themselves.

Also by the ability of our different businesses to work even more together. We have many examples of this cross-fertilization of the different businesses. Our financial situation is extremely robust. We remind you that we will release the Q1 2023 revenues on April 24th. As I said, we'll propose a EUR 0.25 per share dividend that should be paid on April 27th. Thank you for your attention and ready to answer your question with Arno.

Operator

Thank you very much, Mr. Arnaud. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Once again, please limit yourselves to a maximum of 3 questions and no follow-up questions. First question this evening is coming from Mr. Omar Sheikh, calling from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Omar Sheikh
Equity Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Good evening, everyone, thank you for taking the questions. My 3 maybe if I start with Lagardère. Could you, I noticed in the press release you highlighted that you're expecting an EU decision by June. Could you just say about whether or not you're still confident that you'll get a successful outcome from the conclusion of the process? That's the first question. Secondly, you mentioned the 78 million shares that you hold in treasury. Could you just clarify exactly how many of the 78 million shares have to be canceled during 2023 as part of the obligation under the legal framework that you mentioned?

Finally, just on Havas, I noticed that there was quite a big gap between the net and gross revenue growth. In Q4, presumably that's because there was a step up in pass-through costs. Can you just maybe talk about what happened in the Q4, and then maybe more broadly, what your expectations are for organic growth at the net revenue level in 2023? Thank you very much.

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

Well, good evening, Omar. I will take the first question, and I will hand over to François for number 2 and number 3. As regards to the process on Lagardère Editis, we are in phase 2, and during this phase 2, we received a statement of objections that we are currently working to provide all answer required as regard to our remedies. The remedies is based on the sale of Editis through distribution listing. There are discussion and back and forth momentum with the European Commission with what I would mention as being a very constructive dialogue as regard to providing answers to be able to get the agreement to complete the transaction.

our intention is to be able to answer the statement of objection by mid-March, and very soon after, to propose our final remedies. We are working along those lines. The decision of the European Commission is expected by the end of May. And the end of the process as regards to end of June is based on the agreement about the future shareholder, controlling shareholder of Editis. About confidence. I will be confident when we will get a final positive answer. But what I can share with you is that we have a kind of a guideline, and we have an objective, but obviously we are working on a different possible alternative.

Bearing in mind that at the end of the day, what is our ultimate goal is to get the approval, to be able to complete this operation with Groupe Lagardère. François.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Thank you, Arnaud. Good evening, Omar. The answer on the treasury share, as I said, we have 7.1% of treasury share. We have around EUR 42 million of share that should be canceled during the H2. It's almost 4% of our capital. Concerning Havas, first question was concerning the difference between the net revenue and the gross revenue. It's mainly coming during the Q4 of an event which has been launched in Saudi Arabia, which is a big event, with EUR 100 million of invoicing, most of them being pass-through costs that generates its variance between the 2 KPI. It will maybe will have the same event next year, but it clearly has been computed during the Q4.

Concerning the 2023 guidance of Havas in terms of organic growth, we have followed the guidance of our main peers, which is between let's say 2 for the less optimistic to 5 for the more optimistic, and we are exactly in the same range than our peers for our 2023 forecast.

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

Thank you much, sir. Next question is coming from, Julien Roch, colleague from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Julien Roch
Managing Director, Barclays

My 3 questions. The first one on the 42 million shares you said you would cancel in the H2. It's probably not in one go, but in several lots. If we could get some idea of the timing of those 42 million among the H2. That's my first question. The second one is, can we have an update on Canal+, VAT? We should have had a resolution, but we're still waiting. That's the second question. The third one is, what are your intention regarding your Universal Music stake? Thank you.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

O kay, I take the first 2. Arnaud will answer on the question 3. First of all, the EUR 42 million, you are right, it is in 3 batches. To be very precise, it is EUR 2 million in July. It is a limit, so we are not forced to do that exactly in July. It is no later than if we want to cope with the 24 months commitment. EUR 37 million in September, EUR 3 million in October. I think you may ask the next question is when Bolloré should be in a position to cross the threshold of 30%. It will be during the second batch of July. To answer another of your question, they are fully aware of these figures and know the impact of the cancellation on their own stake

Concerning the VAT of Canal+. Let's remind that we are in discussions, as I said last during the last call. We are still going back and forth with the French tax authority on this very important program. The French tax authority keeps on considering that Canal+ is delivering, let's say, a service, a right of access to audiovisual services, including the TV services. We in Canal+ consider that the fact is totally different, that we are mainly delivering TV services. To prove this, as I said earlier, we look at the number of viewing, the share of viewing of Canal+ program, which is 80% in linear TV.

Another way to convince the French tax authority that if we consider the spend of program costs, 90% of our c-program costs are spent on linear content such as Formula One, Champions League, sport and other cinema. We try to convince the French tax authority that with the new system, which has been launched in 2021, in which we split the different services, with 2 different rates of VAT. One of 10% for the pure TV services and one on 20% for the other services, including catch-up. We consider we should get an agreement on this proposal. Today, we are still in negotiation with them, and we are waiting for their green light on our proposal.

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

Thank you. Well, on your question, Julien Roch, on the Universal Music Group. Well, you've seen the results which have been disclosed on the 2nd of March, with the growth of free cash flow by 70% year-on-year, with the revenues increased by 13.6% and EBITDA by 12.5%. I would say that we are a happy shareholder at Universal Music Group and supportive of the strategy which is followed by Sir Lucian Grainge and his team. So, we don't have specific intention rather than to benefit and to support what has been proven a successful set of results. Nothing to add on that question.

Julien Roch
Managing Director, Barclays

Super. Merci beaucoup.

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

Thank you much, sir.

Operator

Next question is coming from Mr. Conor O'Shea, calling from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead, sir.

Conor O'Shea
Head of Media Sector Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Yes, thank you. Good evening, everybody. 3 questions from my side as well. First question, just to follow up on Canal+, in 2023, do you have any more visibility on your intentions, in terms of keeping or reselling some of your Champions League or Europa League rights, which cycle in, I think, in August? Second question on Havas, following up on the guidance 2%-5% organic growth. What is your outlook on margins? I think most of your peer group are looking at flat margins, for 23, do you share that?

The 3rd question, if we could just have a number perhaps on the restructuring costs in the touring business that you mentioned were a one-off in 2022. Thank you.

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

Okay. Thank you. I will take the first question and François the 2 other ones. On Canal+, 2023, well, you've seen the solid numbers that have been released. No need to say that the offer of Canal+ Group, which has been structured by the team led by Canal+ by Maxime Saada, is very compelling. Despite a very competitive environment, we have secured rights in terms of major competitions. We're very happy about the UEFA Champions League, which has great results. We have, we are going from strength to strength as regard to the performance of the Formula One, which is a big success.

As regard to the relationship with big studio, we have secured a strong relationship with them, providing our subscribers with a second-to-none offer, which is helping the development and the growth of Canal+. The last one as regard to studio is the launch of Paramount+ in the Canal+ offer. When you see the current situation at the beginning of 2023 and the momentum, which is our momentum, we see a very solid proposition to our subscribers. We have with under the leadership of the great team at Canal+, the willingness to keep it reinforced and develop that very I would say unique proposition in terms of content for our very happy subscribers.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Question on Havas. First of all, a few words to remind that Arno already elaborated on this. Let's remind that Havas has done a extremely well performance in an industry, sorry, which is doing very well as well. It's very important to remind that Havas is really in the game. Sound organic growth. The margin, as to answer your question, should keep on increasing in 2023.

Conor O'Shea
Head of Media Sector Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

As you know that the margin are below the one of our peers for the reason we have explained several times, including the, our geographical footprint. We have still room in Havas to increase the margin. Even if we anticipate some growth, we will increase our profitability ratio next year.

Conor O'Shea
Head of Media Sector Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Concerning the restructuring of touring business in Vivendi Village, it has been a huge loss, as I said, concerning.

Conor O'Shea
Head of Media Sector Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Uh.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Some losses, operation losses on events. We'll see some restructuring costs in order to avoid any losses. This has amounted around EUR 15 million of impact for the year 2022. Negative impact of EUR 15 million.

Conor O'Shea
Head of Media Sector Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Just for the restructuring.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

For losses plus restructuring.

Conor O'Shea
Head of Media Sector Research, Kepler Cheuvreux

Losses plus restructuring. Okay. Many thanks. Very clear. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you much, sir. We'll now take questions from Ms. Lisa Yang calling from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Lisa Yang
Managing Director of Media and Internet, Goldman Sachs

Hi, good evening to Lisa Yang from Goldman Sachs. The first question is on Canal+. I saw there was a pretty big improvement in the French operations from 3.5% decline in Q3 to +2.5% in Q4. I think the profitability was also better. Just wondering, you know, what was the main driver? I think you did raise price, so just wondering, is that the main contributor? If that's the case, should we expect a similar outlook for 2023, basically low single digit growth and further profit improvement? That's the first question. The second thing is on capital allocation. You ended about with EUR 900 million of net debt. I'm just wondering, like, you know, how you're thinking about the use of cash from here.

Do you still intend to do a bit of buyback? I think you still have about 2% left under the current program. What are your intentions in terms of M&A? Are we talking about bolt-ons, anything large? Which areas? Any help, color on that would be helpful. Lastly on Lagardère, I understand your confidence on the deal getting approved, but is there a risk that it doesn't get approved? If it doesn't, what would you have to do with that? Do you have to sell down, or you can keep your current stake, but the voting rights remain as it is? What would happen in that scenario? Thank you.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Hi Lisa, thank you for your question. First of all, on Canal+, I think the important thing is to remind that as you pointed out, we have done a very sound performance in 2022. It's coming from all the areas. In France, we have been able to increase by more than 400,000, our number of subscribers. It has been really a part of this sound performance. For the international, it has been an increase of 1.3 million subscribers. The year, commercially speaking of Canal+ has really been the strong driver of this performance and make us quite confident for the performance of the year 2023.

On the buyback, as I said, we have, I would say around 3% of treasury share that could be acquired within the plan of 10%. As we said earlier, today it's not really the priority of Vivendi to invest in the treasury share on the short term. It does not mean we won't acquire any treasury share, but it's clearly not the priority. The priority of the team around Arnaud is clearly to invest in our businesses, to reinforce our operation and to make of all our businesses, efficient and fast-growing businesses. That's clearly the priority and not for the time being the buyback of shares. For Lagardère, I will give the floor to Arnaud.

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

Well, thank you, Lisa. I would say that we definitely don't plan for failure. As I said at the beginning of this Q&A session, we are currently having a constructive discussion with the European Commission on the potential and appropriate remedies. We have a solid case. We have, I would say, received 3 solid and serious offer as regard to interest, confirmed by a 3 potential controlling shareholder in the future. Within the coming days and before, I would say around mid-March, I have no doubt that will bring a constructive solution to be able to get the European Commission approval. Thank you.

Lisa Yang
Managing Director of Media and Internet, Goldman Sachs

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you very much. Next question is coming from Mr. Christophe Cherblanc calling from Société Générale. Please go ahead, sir.

Christophe Cherblanc
Senior Analyst, Société Générale

Yes. Good evening, Arnaud. Good evening, François. 3 on my side. First one was on MultiChoice. You have raised your stake to more than 30% recently, and yet I understand your voting rights are capped at 20%. Is there a scenario in which you continue increasing your stake even though your voting rights are capped at 20%? The second question is related to, also to MultiChoice. I understand that the contribution of MultiChoice will be consolidated as operational equity. Does it mean that there will be a third line below UMG and Lagardère in EBITDA? The third and final one was on M&A. Last year, you seemed to have considered the investment or co-investment with Lionsgate, Starz Play.

Can you confirm that kind of opportunity definitely out of the picture now? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Christophe. I will try to answer your first 2 question, and Arnaud will take the third one. On MultiChoice, you're right, we are now above 30%, and we have capped our voting right at 20%. Today, we still keep open all the options, including the one in which we keep on acquiring some shares and with this cap of 20%. All the options are still open.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

You're right, we will take in equity. We have taken in equity from 2022, and it's included in the Canal+ figures. Nevertheless, for the year 2022 it was around 0 impact. Next year the impact will be within Canal+ and not alongside Lagardère and UMG. For M&A, it's Arnaud will answer.

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

bonsoir, Christophe. On the Lionsgate Starz situation, you have seen that Lionsgate announced the spin-off of its studio business and as we speak, we're not in a position to comment further until the new structures are set up. I won't dwell any further on that situation. Thank you. Merci beaucoup.

Christophe Cherblanc
Senior Analyst, Société Générale

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you much, sir. We'll now go to Monsieur Adrien de Saint-Hilaire of Bank of America. Please go ahead, sir.

Adrien de Saint Hilaire
Director and Head of European Media Research, Bank of America

Thank you very much. I've got a couple of questions, follow-ups to what you just said a few minutes ago. On, on ADT's first, did you only receive interest or offers for a controlling stake, or did you also receive offers for full 100%? Secondly, I think, Arnaud, you just said to journalists that, you know, the bids that were made on TI are well below your target, what do you exactly intend to do? And then, back on this MultiChoice situation. I saw that a couple of days ago, a few days ago, they announced a streaming strategic partnership with Sky and Comcast.

I'm just a little surprised that they didn't do it with Canal, given the fact that, you guys have been partners for some time and that you own a significant stake in the company. Can you just explain why this happened? Thank you very much.

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

Bonsoir, Adrien. On the ADT situation, we have ongoing discussion and with a 3 serious interest. The interest have been expressed alongside the approach we have in terms of bringing agreeable remedies to the European Commission. We have ongoing discussion and due diligence with those 3 players. Point number one. Point number 2, as regard to TIM. Well, we always said that we do see value within Telecom Italia. This is a situation which has developments on a quasi-daily basis. The current position, which is the Vivendi position on that situation, is to be a very active shareholder, and this is exactly what we are going to do.

potential scenarios. What we want is to get a scenario that we can support and that will, as a prerequisite, be aligned with the strategic ambition of the new Italian stakeholder to build an attractive telecom market situation in Italy. B, that will take position on a company that needs to open a new chapter, i.e., Telecom Italia. C, which happens to have as a number one shareholder, a group called Vivendi, and Vivendi has taken the decision to be able to get the full freedom of action as regard to develop the value and to create value for all the stakeholder within the company. And to really make sure that the true intersect value within the operation is going to be recognized.

You're absolutely right in saying that the current situation, as far as I can read in the press and see the different comments, is not matching those expectations. That with the willingness of the Italian government, as regard to the, the strategic vision for the market and the company, we're very happy to see how we can be a proactive and shareholder to make that happen. I would say in our view, as of this evening, watch this space, but we're going to be very active shareholder. That you can be sure of. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much, sir.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Yeah, just rapidly, a few words on the Sky Comcast deal with MultiChoice, which has been announced a few days ago. Today it's clearly too early to elaborate on it. We do not have the full detail of this agreement, which have not been public yet. We will try and discuss with MultiChoice to understand the consequences of this agreement and to see how Canal+ could be part of it. But today it's too early to elaborate on it.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Next question will be coming from Mr. Richard Eary of UBS. Please go ahead, sir.

Richard Eary
Managing Director, UBS

Yeah, many thanks. A lot of my questions have been answered already, but just 2 follow-ups, please. Just going back to the Canal+ guidance. Can you just be a bit more specific in terms of where you think organic growth will land and EBITDA or EBITDA will land in 2023? I know there's a number of moving parts with regard to the VAT issues that need to get resolved, but it'd be helpful to try and understand the moving parts, including the equity contributions that will now come from MultiChoice. Then just the follow-up question, just going back to Julien's question on the share cancellation. You said it's EUR 37 million is gonna be canceled. Was that in July? I missed the actual date, and that would then take them over the threshold in July. Was that correct?

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Canal, we do not give any guidance on the evolution of Canal. As we said several times, we are confident looking at the subscriber base, looking at our ability to manage costs, looking at the very performing businesses in Africa and in other region of Europe. Today, we are confident. As you said, we'll take advantage of the equity affiliate impact of MultiChoice. We intend to reinforce and slightly improve our profitability. Concerning the treasury share, not entering too much into detail, but as I said, we have a big amount coming in September, which is the day when the threshold is crossed. It's in September.

Richard Eary
Managing Director, UBS

Okay. 'Cause you said July earlier. I just wanted to be clear that was September.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

No, what I said or maybe I was mistaken, sorry for that. What I say that we have a total of EUR 42 million from July to October.

Richard Eary
Managing Director, UBS

Okay.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

The threshold is in September.

Richard Eary
Managing Director, UBS

Okay. Thank you. Just to follow up on the contributions for MultiChoice, what's the magnitude we should be thinking about in 2023?

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Sorry to answer that, but it's too early, as today we have not the full understanding of the MultiChoice figures. MultiChoice is delivering very strong EBIT. Last year as heavy Forex losses, many minority interests. Today we are reviewing with them the impact we'll have. It's too early at this stage to make a forecast of the impact of 2023.

Richard Eary
Managing Director, UBS

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Eary. Next question is coming from Mr. Matthew Walker, colleague from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead, sir.

Matthew Walker
Senior Equity Analyst, Credit Suisse

Thanks a lot. Hi, everybody. The first question is on, you mentioned the Bolloré Group and the threshold in September. You're probably not gonna answer this, do you have any idea about their intention? Is it to basically sell down their stake so they remain below the threshold, or is it their intention to trigger the threshold? The second question is on Telecom Italia. You've obviously taken the write down there. I guess, would you say that your strategy of sort of media telco corporation focus on Southern Europe has changed now, it's a much more sort of global global strategy with pay TV? The last question is on UMG.

You basically said you're a happy holder at the moment, but if you did sell down UMG, could we take it that that money would go into M&A, particularly for pay TV?

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

I'll take second and third, and I will leave the first one to François. As regard to Telecom Italia, no, the strategy has not changed. What we decided, for reasons that I dwelled on during that call is to get freedom of action. We do consider that the this decision is drawing a line in the sand and opening a new chapter. We want value to be created. We want to be able to develop our position in a global approach to the different businesses, but clearly developing our operations in Italy and in Spain is part of the agenda. As regard to Italy, we do see Italy as a country of opportunity.

After different up and downs as regard to our story there, we do think that this opening of a new chapter will provide us with opportunities. There is no change. There is a new era and the capacity potentially to be provided with opportunity to grow our business. Bearing in mind that from where we do stand this evening, the highest priority is to create value on our position at Telecom Italia. That's point number 2. As regard to UMG, we are a happy shareholder on UMG, and we expect to remain a happy shareholder on UMG. Any other plan is not on the agenda. François.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Yes. Try to close the subject of Bolloré. I absolutely can't give you any information on the Bolloré decision for the coming summer. You should ask them during their results release, which will happen I think on the 14th of March, and they certainly will answer. On our side, we just ensure that they are fully aware of the threshold in July. In September, sorry. That's clearly then their call to make that decision.

Matthew Walker
Senior Equity Analyst, Credit Suisse

Okay. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. This evening's last question is coming from Silvia Cuneo, for Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Silvia Cuneo
Director, Deutsche Bank

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I just have 2 left. First one is on Havas. Thanks for providing a little bit more color on the outlook for 2023. Just wondering if you could help us think about the drivers within that mix. Similarly to some of the things your peers talk about, with a growing exposure to areas beyond the traditional media and creative. Can you perhaps comment on how exposed you are to faster-growing areas? Secondly, if you could come back to the EBITDA improvement at Canal+, can you help us think about the drivers of this big improvement in 2022 and perhaps share some thoughts about the outlook for StudioCanal in 2023? Thank you.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Sorry. On Canal+, nothing to add to my previous comment that, as I said, the year 2022 has been a year of high performances in all the businesses, including StudioCanal, who has performed very well and who has been part of the increase of the results. On the guidance, just as I said, we keep on forecasting a slight increase of the profitability. Concerning Havas. Your first question was on Havas?

Silvia Cuneo
Director, Deutsche Bank

Yes. Yes, on Havas.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Could you please, Silvia, repeat the question because I'm not sure I get it 100%.

Silvia Cuneo
Director, Deutsche Bank

Yes, of course. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit about the performance within Havas of media activities, creative activities, and if you have some thoughts to share in terms of new, faster-growing areas, like your agency peers talk about.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Okay. That's okay. Sorry, sorry. Thank you for your question. I think, I think the very important thing for Havas, it is one of the reason why we performed so well in 2022, is that the 3 business units, Havas Media Group, Havas Creative Group, and Havas Health & You, our vertical in pharmaceutical business, have done very well. All of them have delivered very sound performance. That's clearly the reason why we have been able to perform that much. For the future, we keep on investing in all the 3 business units. Today, the Health & You is the most profitable, the fast-growing, but creative and media will still keep our attention in terms of M&A and in terms of cost control, new clients. All the businesses are doing well.

In terms of geography, as I said, we keep on investing outside France. France is only representing now 17% of the Havas revenue. 83% are coming from abroad, mainly North America, but we also develop Asia with the acquisition of Front Network. We'll keep on focusing on all these growing areas.

Silvia Cuneo
Director, Deutsche Bank

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you, ma'am. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's Q&A session. I'll return the call back over to Mr. Arnaud de Puyfontaine for any additional or closing remarks. Thank you.

François Laroze
CFO and Member of the Management Board, Vivendi

Well, François and I would like to thank you for your attention and your question. We look forward to the next meeting which is going to be held end of July. I wish you all the very best. Good evening, and be safe. Bye-bye.

Operator

Thank you very much, gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's conference. Thank you for your attendance. You may disconnect your-

Powered by