Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Vivendi first half 2023 earnings presentation. This conference call is being hosted by Mr. Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Chairman of the Management Board, and CEO, Mr. François Laroze, a member of the Management Board and CFO. As a reminder, this conference 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 will be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question at any time. At any point, if you require assistance, please press star zero and you will be connected to an operator. I'd like to turn the call over to your host today, Mr. Arnaud de Puyfontaine. Sir, please go ahead. The line is open.
Thank you very much. Hello, good evening, everyone, and welcome, and thank you for joining us for the Vivendi 2023 first half earnings presentation. Before handing over to François, I would like to highlight the quality of our operational results. Revenues increased by 3.7% compared to H1 2022, with an acceleration of growth in Q2, and group EBITDA increased by 7.7%. This semester can be characterized by two key words, in line with what we have achieved since 2014, solidity and dynamism. First, solidity. Our businesses have shown their robustness in challenging environments.
May it be the intensive competition on its several markets for CANAL+ Group, the challenges faced by the advertising sector, rising paper prices for Prisma Media, downturn in the gaming market, mobile, and of course, the macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty impacting every sector. Their performances illustrate their resilience as well as their ability to transform themselves to adapt to a fast-moving environment. On a corporate level, our solidity is expressed through the resistance of our share price, despite the exit from the CAC 40 . Over the long term, our stock performance illustrates this resilience. As you can see on the chart, our share price has risen by 123% with dividends reinvested between June 2014 and July 2023, compared to +116% for the CAC. The second key word I wanted to stress today is dynamism.
Vivendi is a fast-growing group in all its businesses. Let me just take a few examples. CANAL+ has made recent significant moves, pushing its international expansion one step further. In June, the group invested in Viu, Asia's leading streaming platform, by taking a 26% stake. Asia is a continent with strong growth prospects, particularly in OTT. Last week, we also announced the acquisition of a 12% stake in Viaplay, the leading pay TV company in the Nordic countries, a company that is very complementary to ours geographically. As you know, we also have made an important stake in MultiChoice, 32.6% as of June 30. In addition to its excellent sales momentum, Havas has continued to make acquisitions at a steady pace. Four new agencies have already joined the group in 2023.
Of particular note, is the acquisition of a majority stake in Uncommon, the UK's most awarded independent creative agency, and recently named International Agency of the Year by Ad Age magazine. Prisma Media's policies of acquisitions and launches is also on the offensive, with a majority stake in MilK, publisher of high-end Home and Fashion magazines, and also the success of the new launches, Mortelle Adèle and Les Clés de mon énergie, together with Harper's Bazaar, they demonstrate the team's ability to execute in unexplored fields so far, youth and luxury. At the same time, Prisma Media continues to digitalize and create new growth opportunities. You certainly read that we have just entered into exclusive negotiation for the acquisition of the assets of M6 Digital Services division.
For Gameloft, the company is benefiting from its strategic shift towards PC console games, which accounted for 37% of Gameloft's total first half revenues. All our businesses continue to demonstrate constant innovation and agility, thanks to the quality, enthusiasm, and dedication of our teams around the world. This explains our dynamism, which is set to continue. The second half of the year promises to be just as active. On the Italian front first, as Telecom Italia's largest shareholder, Vivendi will continue to ensure the fair valuation of the company's assets while preserving the long-term strategic vision, the sustainability, and the interest of the company and all its shareholders. As the process with the Lagardère group , we are now entering the final phase. On June 9, we received approval from the European Commission to complete our proposed transaction with Lagardère.
This approval is contingent upon the completions of Vivendi's commitments, the sales of Editis and the Gala magazine. Everything is well on track. The agreement with International Media Invest for the sale of Editis was signed mid-June. The European Commission will have to approve IMI as a suitable purchaser. The transaction also remains subject to IMI obtaining the required merger control clearances in the relevant jurisdictions. As for Gala, yesterday, we enter into a put option agreement for it sells to the Figaro group . The transaction is subject to information consultation procedures with the relevant employee representative bodies. The European Commission will also have to approve the Figaro group as a suitable purchaser. We are confident that we will be able to finalize this operation by October 2023.
I would like to stress that the opening of an investigation into suspicions of early implementation of Vivendi's acquisition of Lagardère, doesn't affect the transaction, nor does it prejudge the existence of an infringement. We have complied with the applicable regulations and concentrations, and we are committed to continuing to respect them until the complete execution of the remedies to offer to the European Commission. Yet, we are looking forward to realizing this transaction, which will give our group a whole new dimension. With the addition of the Lagardère group , Vivendi will have some 66,000 employees compared to 38,000 as to the end of December 2022, with a stronger presence in key markets such as France, United Kingdom, Spain, and the U.S.
Annual revenues are projected to reach approximately EUR 17 billion based on 2022 results, compared to around EUR 10 billion today. This will provide many opportunities to our two groups and represent a major step forward in our strategic project. It is safe to say that we are definitely pursuing our transformation, internationalization, and integration ambition, and strengthening our leading position in culture and entertainment. Thank you for your attention. Let me now hand over to François.
Hi, everyone. Pleased to walk you through the Vivendi first half results, starting by the figures in a nutshell. In addition to what Arnaud just described, let's say that our EBITDA of the group is up by 7.7% to EUR 440 million, and that our adjusted net income is up to EUR 324 million from EUR 58 million, taking into account the good operation of our recurring businesses. In terms of financial situation, it's still very robust, with a net debt of EUR 1.5 billion at the end of the first half, compared with an equity of EUR 17.5 billion. The cash flow delivered by the operation has been very solid, EUR 228 million, we still have EUR 2.8 billion of available credit facilities. Let's move now to the revenues.
The revenues, as we said, are up by 3.7% in growth figures, 3.2% in organic. Important to point out that the main two business units, CANAL+ Group and Havas, are delivering very strong organic growth. 3%, 2.3% for CANAL+, 4.2% for Havas group on this first half. Important to note as well, that among during this first half, the performance of the second quarter has been extremely strong and far stronger than the one of the first quarter.
For the first quarter, we delivered 2% of organic growth, and we are up to 4.3% during the second quarter, and here again, CANAL+ moving from 1.2%-3.5%, and Havas from 1.9%-6.3%, are confirming this very positive trend during the first half. If we move to EBITDA now, the EBITDA of the control business amounts to EUR 379 million, compared with EUR 366 million last year. It's an increase by 3.5%. CANAL+ is at the very same level than last year, but very strong level of EUR 337 million for the first half. Havas, up by 6% to EUR 118 million.
Prisma Media, down by EUR 4 million. We'll come back on it. All the other businesses are doing better than last year. When we move from the EBITDA of control business to EBITDA of the group, we take into account the share into UMG and Lagardère. We have some details to explain this performance for the first half. Universal Music, let's remind that we take 10% of the result of the group. We took EUR 39 million for the first half, compared with EUR 66 million for the first half 2022. It's a reduction compared with last year, even if the net earnings of the group share for the world group, UMG, moved from EUR 241 million to EUR 625 million.
The reason of this variance came from the elimination of the revaluation of stakes in Spotify and Tencent Music, which are not taken into our P&L. For Lagardère, very positive first half, which has been released two days ago with a strong increase of the revenues. Therefore, our contribution to Vivendi EBITDA moved from a loss of EUR 20 million last year to a profit of EUR 26 million, reminding that with the seasonality, we know that Lagardère will do far better during the second half. A few words on net debt now. We moved from EUR 0.9 billion at the end of the last year, to EUR 1.5 billion at the end of June 2023.
Let's take a few minutes on the financial investment because Vivendi spent more than EUR 400 million in financial investment, mainly in CANAL+ through Viu, which has been announced very recently, and it will be below EUR 200 million. MultiChoice, more than EUR 100 million to increase our stake to 32.6%, but also some acquisition, mid-size acquisition within CANAL+ in studio, for STUDIOCANAL mainly, and in Havas. In the same times, the business units were delivering a very positive CFFO of EUR 0.2 billion , even if below the one of last year, knowing that in 2022, there have been some exceptional performances in the CFFO of Canal, which was clearly non-recurrent.
We again, are very confident, taking into consideration the seasonality of our cash, that the performance of the second half will be very high, and will lead to an increase of the CFFO on the whole year compared with last year. Remind also that we have spent almost EUR 300 million of dividend paid to shareholders, which explained this move from EUR 0.9 billion to EUR 1.5 billion of net debt. Still on the debt always, we remind that, having this net debt of EUR 1.5 billion, we have a gross cash position of EUR 1.9 billion, and some bonds for EUR 3.5 billion, EUR 3.3 billion. That's a positive moment for Vivendi, knowing that the interest on the bonds are very low, below 1%, and that the remuneration of our cash position is up month after month.
It's 2.3% as an average of the first half. It's closer to 4% for the last month of the first half. In terms of bond maturity, we remind you that we have some bonds to reimburse at the end of the year, EUR 600 million in November 2023, and then EUR 850 million in one year time, in September 2024. We still have a long time before the reimbursement of all these bonds up to December 2028. During the first half, we have the confirmation by Moody's that our rating level, Baa2, will be confirmed.
The outlook is stable, which is good news, and we have been able to convince Moody's that the future performance of the group, including Lagardère, can lead us to confirm this level of rating. A few words now on the business units. For CANAL+, an increase by 3% of the revenues coming from all the business units, TV International, + 2%, Mainland France, 1.7%, and the extraordinary performance of STUDIOCANAL, 21.7% of increase. In terms of subscriber base, we have reached the level of 25 million of subscribers, compared with 23.9 million, 1 year ago at the end of June 2022. It's a very strong increase, which comes from all geographies, Europe, but also Africa.
Let's remind that, on these 25 million of subscribers, 18.3 million are self-distributed. Reminded that this self-distributed subscribers are the one with the highest ARPU. In terms of figures by continent, we have 16 million in Europe, including 9.8 million in France, 7 million in Africa, 1 million in Asia Pacific, and 0.8 million in the other territories, including the French other territories, but also Italy or Mauritius. I will go very rapidly on the new developments of CANAL+ International that Arnaud has already commented. Just reminding that we keep on extending the network of STUDIOCANAL all over the world with some acquisition in the USA and in the UK. Havas. Havas has done a very, very solid first half.
As we said, 4.2% of organic growth for the whole half, 6.3% of increase of the EBITDA inorganic from EUR 112 million-EUR 118 million . As already described, a very, very solid second quarter at 6.3%. Let's remind that with this performance of 6.3%, Havas will be in the best-in-class of the first half compared with its peers. We know that most of our peers will be far below this performance for the second quarter. The organic growth of 6.3% in the second quarter comes from all our regions: Europe, 3.4%, North America, 5%, Asia, 7.6%, Latin America, 13.4%, due to major wins with new clients joining the Havas portfolio.
Concerning the Havas acquisition, Arnaud already commented, just a few words on the new brand identity that has been revealed in June, which seems to be very appreciated by our partners, clients, and vendors. Also the award-winning creativity with 121 awards, including a Grand Prix at Cannes for the very already iconic campaign concerning Anne de Gaulle with Aéroports de Paris. On Prisma, as I said, some one-off positive revenues and EBIT explained the deterioration of the revenues and EBITDA, also some impact of the paper price, which has been higher during the first half 2023, compared with first half 2022.
Nevertheless, the evolution of the paper price over the last few months confirmed that the second half will be far stronger in terms of performance. For Gala, for Prisma, just a few words to tell you that the duty of Gala is to try to prepare the post Gala operation in 2024. For this, as Arnaud has already mentioned, we have a plan with some M&A, and we describe MilK and M6 Digital , but also to launch new magazine that have been already described, and to reshape some of our new or existing formats, like special-interest or Femme Actuelle. All these operations should enable us to offset the negative impact of the disposal of Gala.
For Gameloft, very solid figures, revenue up from EUR 120 million to EUR 139 million. The EBITDA which moved from -EUR 16 million to -EUR 12 million. Very positive trend for the second half. We are more than comfortable on the target of reaching a very positive result for the whole year 2023, taking into consideration the seasonality in this gaming business. For the other operation, Ticketing Live, very solid first semester of the See Tickets operation, but also the secondary business like Olympia, Théâtre de l'Œuvre, all the festival, have done very well. Thanks to this operation, the loss of last year has been replaced by the profit of EUR 7 million. The new initiative, mainly Dailymotion, GVA, are doing very well.
Dailymotion reducing his losses quarter after quarter, increasing his revenue with a new app, which has been launched in May, and GVA expanding its network with 12 cities in 7 countries, and more than 2 million of eligible homes and business. If we have a word on the Vivendi, the financial asset portfolio, at the end of June, the portfolio was amounting to EUR 8.4 billion, and we've received during this first half, almost EUR 200 million of dividends. You know, most of the stakes of the group Vivendi, let's stop one minute on the MultiChoice, because we have increased, as I said, our stake to 32.6%, investing more than EUR 100 million during this first half.
The new, the new stake in Viu, 26% in Asia, and a slightly increase of the PRISA stake from less than 10% to almost 12% during the first half. In terms of a return to shareholders, we have delivered a dividend of EUR 260 million during the first half, roughly at the same level than last year. EUR 29 million of share buybacks, mainly due to plan on an employee share ownership operation. During this first half, we have canceled 78 million of treasury shares, as already announced during our previous call. Now, the Vivendi group only owns 5.2 million of treasury share, or 0.5% of the share capital, and all these shares are dedicated to performance stock plan and employee ownership operation.
Let's remind that the former shareholder meeting of the 24th of April 2023, authorized a share buyback program for up to 10% of the share capital and an OPRA up to 50% of the share capital, with a maximum price of EUR 16. As a conclusion, before giving you the floor for questions, let's say that this first half has been extremely strong, with an acceleration of the growth during the second quarter, that our financial situation is very solid. That is, we still intend to finalize the combination with Lagardère by the end of October, and hopefully, at the end of the year, Lagardère will be among the control business and not anymore among the stakes, financial stakes.
Let's also tell you that we will release our Q3 revenues on October 19th. Now, thank you for your attention, and we are ready with Arnaud to answer all your questions.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. That is star one to ask a question. Our first question is coming from Lisa Yang, calling from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good evening. I have three questions, please. Firstly, is on your broader strategy. I think you said previously you wanted to shift more towards an operating company, rather than a holding company. I think if you look at the group today, most of the value is still in listed and controlled stakes. More recently, you know, you acquired more minority stakes in Viaplay . I was just wondering, you know, is there any sort of change in your strategy and how you envisage that transition toward being a more operating company? That's the first question. Second question is on the capital allocation.
As you mentioned, you have the authorization to buy up to 10% of your share capital, being at discount today, I think probably close to 50% after the UMG share price move. I was just wondering what would make you consider buying back stock again? That's the second question. The third one is on Havas. I was just wondering, with all your peers reporting, you know, I think, you know, talking about project delays, weaker trends, just wondering what drove the exploration at Havas. Is it just all new business? I think at the Q1 results, you mentioned some project delays and delayed billing. I just wonder if that came through in Q2, or is that yet to come through in the second half?
Any sort of update in terms of the current trends, on Havas would be great. Thank you.
Maybe I will take the first, then you will take second and third. Okay. Hi, Lisa, Arnaud de Puyfontaine speaking. Well, clearly on the agenda, we are working intensively just to change the perception of the company and to make it an industrial integrated group. As ROM, we don't build that in only on one day, and it's a work in progress. When you see our different financial participation, and since we opened the new chapter last year with our Chairman, Yannick Bolloré, and we implemented the new management board, and we built the executive board, it's really to create a momentum and to achieve our goal.
There is a difference between, I would say, historic stake that we have in our portfolio, like the one of the situation in Italy and others, and what we have announced in terms of momentum for CANAL+, for instance, because the approach on CANAL+ and the different situation is to take a stake, just to be able to work in terms of strategy, to work with the management team, and then after, to see whether there is an opportunity or not to reinforce. It's a work in progress. Again, our intention, to answer your question, Lisa, is still the same, remain the same.
Perfectly understand that, based on our, I would say, discounts, in our share price, there is a lot of, probably expectation as regard to providing tangible elements, but we are working on that, and hopefully we'll be able to share with you progress in the foreseeable future.
On the following two questions, Lisa, in terms of cash allocation, we will repeat what we said earlier, that we have this option to buy back up to 10% of our share capital. Today, we still consider it's not the priority. As Arnaud just mentioned, we have invested a lot in operation directly related with our control business, in Viu, in Viaplay, and the other. I think we focus on this. We have this option to buy some shares. We know the level of discount, but we still do not consider for the coming weeks and months, that is not the priority for us to buy back our shares. On Havas, the second quarter has been extremely strong.
We have on the industry, received some mixed comments from our different peers. Some are quite confident, others are more cautious. What we know is that we said we are not sure to be able to deliver such a high growth that we delivered during the second quarter all year long. Nevertheless, for the moment, we do not see any major threats, any headwinds coming. We are quite confident to keep on growing at a good pace for Havas, knowing that the performance of some of our agencies has been quite weak, as I said earlier, especially in Edge in the US, and they should do better in the second half. We remain for the moment, let's say, cautiously optimistic.
Thank you. That's very helpful.
Thank you, ma'am. Our next question is coming from Adrien de Saint-Hilaire of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yep. Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. Hopefully, you can hear me well. I've got a few questions, if you don't mind. Yeah, Arnaud, you alluded to this investigation from the European Commission and a possible fine related to gun jumping. Can you help us frame what you think the maximum risk is around this? Because I understand it could be 10% of combined sales, but maybe you have a better assessment. Secondly, UMG, if I'm not mistaken, is now trading above your book value. Is that therefore a level where you might consider an exit, or do you think there is further upsides here? Thirdly, I'm just wondering what you're trying to achieve with Viaplay. What does a 12% stake bring?
'Cause historically, to your point, you've rather taken bigger stakes in companies when you're trying to, like, build something. Is 12% just a starting point or what not? I'm just curious. Thank you.
Thank you. Bonjour, Adrien. On the former question, on the first question, well, as I said, we have been informed of this investigation. I do reiterate that we followed the rule by the book as regard to the regulation. We do consider that as we did in the past, that in the future, till a final decision from the European Commission, we're not going to make any move in terms of taking control before the agreement to go ahead now. What you're asking is a theoretical question, and I don't have substantial elements to answer that question because we don't think that we are going to be eligible to any fine.
We shall see. To put a number, there is a theoretical 10% fine on our turnover, but that's that's by the book, so can't be more specific, Adrien. On the second thing and on Universal Music Group and our stake in the company, we have seen the quality of the results that have been disclosed. We have seen the perception of the market and the trading today. We have seen the number you put about the target price for Universal Music Group. We're a happy shareholder, and we remain happy, and do truly believe that there is a future growth in that business. Maybe you want to take Viaplay, François?
Yes, I think important things to say is that today it's a minority stake, but none of the stake that CANAL+ took over the last 12 months, i.e. MultiChoice, Viaplay, and Viu, are stakes which are dormant ones. Today, we are not in control position in none of them. Nevertheless, we have discussions with the shareholders, with the partners, as client, as vendors, sometimes. It is clearly financial stakes as we are not in control position, but it's really stakes that generate some movement in our operational of CANAL+, clearly.
There have been recent discussion with MultiChoice, discussion already with Viaplay, and with Viu. Obviously, the target of Viu is to try to bring to Viu some of our know, to help them to reach their target of going back to very profitable result in the coming 2 years. It's clearly, I would say, minority stakes, but with very operational global view.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, sir. Our next caller is going to be Julien Roch, who's calling from Barclays. Please go ahead, sir.
We also know François, Xavier, Nathalie. The first question is on Telecom Italia. So answering Lisa's question, you said that the historic stake, including Telecom Italia, were different from the new stakes that you mostly bought for CANAL+, implying that you wanted to sell Telecom Italia. You seemed to not like the KKR bid. You just said to journalists in a previous call that, "Any offer that does not answer our questions about the future of Telecom Italia strategy, will not have the support of Vivendi." What other questions do you have for KKR? That's my first question.
The second question on MultiChoice, you keep getting more stake, but there's a rule that you can't get more than 30% of the voting rights because you're not South African, so you can't get control of MultiChoice ever. Where are you going there? Is the idea to agree with management to basically buy Africa outside of South Africa and get control there? Question on MultiChoice. The last question is on CANAL+. There was a leak in the French press where the employee representative, again, leaked the financial numbers that are given to them. CANAL+ France is now loss-making with all the investments you made in Netflix and Disney and sports. Do you see a path to profitability in France for CANAL+? Thank you.
Bonsoir, Julien. As regard to your other question on Telecom Italia, 1, I will not draw too fast a conclusion as regard to intention on the stake. The response I brought to Lisa was just to say that the logic of our investment in 2015 on Telecom Italia, and other situation is different from the approach we're currently having on the different situation that we expressed during first half with CANAL+. Our agenda as regard to this stake in Telecom Italia today, is to make sure that we're gonna get a fair valuation for our stake, and then we'll decide what's next. We said that we wanted to be able to build a strong development in Italy.
First and foremost, to be able to make that happen, we need to get a situation sorted, as regard to Telecom Italia. As regard to the message to potential bidder on the Telecom Italia situation, we said that the message number one, A, the jewel of Telecom Italia is its network. If you want to separate the network for the rest of the business, you need to have a few very compelling questions to be answered. Like, what is going to be Telecom Italia post-separation from its networks? If you sell the jewel, what is going to be happening next to the new, what they call ServCo. We need those kind of answers. It's what's going to be the MSA between the remaining part of the business and the network?
What is going to be the level of employees and the level of the debt that you're going to provide to the newly formed ServCo, and so on and so forth. To make a transaction as regards to a certain kind of valuation about the network, without answering that kind of question, I've got a whole list as regard to the situation. As you know, I left the board early this year to be able to play the role as a CEO of the first shareholder and to defend our position in that situation. I want to be seen as an positive, active shareholder. For me to be able to only sell the network without answering the global strategic vision, and how to implement a sustainable and profitable and value creation plan for the global company, is just procrastination.
That's the reason why we said out loudly that what we want is an operating plan to be able to step by step, generate much higher cash flow in Telecom Italia, create the possibility to reimburse the debt step by step, and having different plans. For me, the sale of the network at a price without answering this question, it's just good enough? Now, the other part of your question, and my answer to the question is obviously, if there is a compelling plan, if there is a kind of a vision as regards to the future of the company, if the network were to be carved out or separated or whatever, obviously, this is the jewel of the crown.
It has to be paid a price, which based on my current information, which I read in the press, is currently in the offer made by you mentioned KKR, is well below the real value of the network. That's the current situation. Last but not least, as you know, this is a situation that is moving on a daily basis. You know, I kept on saying that the situation of Open Fiber was a situation that I didn't see the sustainability. 72 hours ago, I guess, there was a kind of a call as regard to the problem of financing of this Open Fiber, which had been created in 2016, as a competitor to the network of Telecom Italia.
This is an example, if needed, which is bringing substantial elements as regard to there is a kind of a need of a big reshuffle and the creation of a kind of a environment in the telco market in Italy. That could be a step change and at last create a kind of a new chapter for the telco sector in Italy, on the one hand, but Telecom Italia, more specifically. My answer to your question, which I have been a little bit extensive, but it is just to explain what is our position today and watch the space.
I will move to the question two on MultiChoice. Just to remind that, first of all, MultiChoice, when you look at the geographical footprint of it, it's incredibly complementary with CANAL+. You know their footprint in the southern range of Africa compared with ours. First of all, it's extremely complementary. Second, they are delivering very positive results in terms of EBIT. This first half has been hit by some, I would say, one-off and below EBIT results, which at the end have led to a loss for the group for the first half. The recurring cooperation are still very, very positive, almost EUR 500 million of EBIT.
What we say that we are discussing back and forth with them, you know, we have a frequent relation with them, there are clearly two options. The first one is to try to find some agreements as partners, buying some programs, selling others, and trying to organize in some geographies, agreements together. I would say that's the minimum we can get with them, the good news is that we are now the line is clearly open with them, we have discussions to optimize our position. Maybe there could be another, another step, obviously this next step that could lead us to be above the 35%, won't be plain sailing. The situation is very complex there, with the black empowerment rules, with the local rules as well.
We do not know how it will end, but today we keep all the options. First one, being a strong partner of a very complementary group. The second is to go to a closer agreement with them. Here again, it will require some more weeks, months to build the perfect system. Even if we take time to build this partnership with them, in the meantime, we'll be able to work together to increase both MultiChoice and CANAL+ results. Concerning the leak, the numerous leak we have suffered during the last few weeks. Among these leaks have been the leak on the CANAL+ France.
I think, first of all, you know, as I do, that the social results which are delivered are not really the one that give them more information on the real performance of a company. I don't think these figures can really be considered as a real trend. Nevertheless, you know that the situation in France is always under tension. We have never hidden the fact that France was not delivering very high results, and we are working with all the CANAL+ team to make this result in France increasing in the coming half.
Merci beaucoup.
Thank you very much, sir. Our next question is coming from Mr. Christophe Cherblanc, from Société Générale . Please go ahead, sir.
Yes, good evening. My first question was on CANAL+. We've been speaking about the VAT risk for quite some time. Is it fair to say that as you've been raising prices, the residual risk is diminishing? Can you give some kind of order of magnitude on the exposure? That's the first one. The second one is on Lagardère. They reported good numbers. What's the long-term plan after the subsidiary of lapsing at the end of this year? Related to Lagardère, have you been exploring the Simon & Schuster opportunity, which is still for sale, I believe? The very last one is a very short one on M&A and Havas. You mentioned Uncommon.
Can you give us some sense of the orders of magnitude of revenue and price? I read in the French press up to EUR 140 million, which seemed quite a lot, but just wanted clarity on that. Thank you.
Thank you. I will start with the VAT and then, and a few words also on the Uncommon, and I know we'll come in the Lagardère. On the VAT, we do not disclose the type of risk, because it's very complex to calculate, and we still are going back and forth with the French tax authority to convince, and I had roughly the same speech six months ago. We tried to convince them that the moving the VAT rate at 20% is really a nonsense when you look at the type of service we deliver to our clients, which is clearly linear TV, our rights are linear, and therefore, it does not make sense to have the full revenues with the VAT of 20%.
We'll be a one day in a position to convince that we could have a mix of different rates, but certainly not to have a 100% of our revenue with this VAT rate of 20%. You're right, in the meantime, we've increased some of our tariff and offset part of the risk. Unfortunately, I can't give you the, I would say, the final outcome of this discussion that should happen early 2024, hopefully.
On the Uncommon, as you know, most of our deal of Havas, our deal with which are based with the majority that we take in the first stage, and then we have earn out and buyouts on a long period in order to secure our initial investment. The amount of EUR 80 million-EUR 130 million clearly depends on the final performance of the agency. If one day we pay EUR 120 million for the whole capital of Uncommon, that will mean that the performance are extremely high, because we won't only pay the amount if the performance is extremely high.
That's always the type of deal we achieve with Havas, keeping the motivation of the sellers as long as possible, and most of the time on a five to eight years period. Now, I give the floor for Lagardère to Arnaud.
Thank you. Well, first and foremost, congratulations to Arnaud Lagardère and his team, as regard to the quality of the performance that has been reported on Tuesday evening. We're a happy shareholder, as regard to the momentum we have seen, not only in a good performance of the publishing operation, but also in terms of the recovery and the pace of recovery of the travel retail. As regard to the plan for next, well, we said that we would keep the integrity of the group, and this is what we're gonna do.
We hope that we will get a momentum that is going to be sustainable, and we look forward to be able to be part of bringing the right combination and to help and to bring our support to the growth profile of the company. Now, as regarded to your question, Christophe, on Simon & Schuster, we have not submitted an offer because we are linked to this process with the European Commission. As we don't have a relationship with Lagardère on operational matters, we don't know what's the situation. We understand that there is a process which has been opened.
We don't know what's going to be the outcome, but I can't dwell any further about the situation that I don't have any detail about the current status.
Thank you very much, sir.
Next question is from Conor O'Shea calling from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Good evening, everybody. Just a few follow-up questions from my side as well. Firstly, maybe for CANAL+. Just wondering, I think versus December, the international subscribers fell by about 500,000. I think we see in Africa sometimes when there's a lack of major events, that declines, but interesting to see that the French subscribers rose despite the price increases, and fell quite significantly overseas. Were there any other factors in that?
Also for CANAL+, as we get closer to when you get the exclusive rights for UEFA Champions League, I think we're cycling in August, September, what's your sort of what's the latest thinking from CANAL+ in terms of whether they keep all those rights or whether they sublicense those rights to some of their peers? It's the first question. Second question, just on Havas, with the pickup in the second quarter, can you just say a word about activity with the healthcare sector, which I think is your biggest client sector in that, and had been weak for generally the market and a lot of the peers, year to date, and I think it's close to one third of your client base. Has that improved in the second quarter? Was that a factor in the improvement?
Last question, maybe for François, on the contribution from UMG, I understand what you said about you don't take the revaluation of the Spotify stake, but just surprising in a way that the contribution from UMG that you take in is down year-on-year versus the first half of last year, when, you know, UMG's underlying earnings were growing quite significantly. Is there something on the accounting side there that explains that? Thank you.
First, I think it was on a subscriber base, international subscriber base.
Yes.
We always compare the June with June because, you know, there is a strong seasonality.
Mm.
year events, but also some sport events. At La Réunion , we have always compared with the one year previous performance. That's why we see this increase year-on-year for Africa from 6.5 million to 7 million. I think it's really, it makes more sense to compare June with June rather than June with the last, the end of the previous previous half. On the Champions League, sublicensees or not, I think it's, it will be the decision of CANAL+.
I think they are open to study different type of sub-licensing if they find partners and if they consider that this type of sub-licenses create some value for CANAL+ without jeopardizing their subscriber base. It's not closed, it's not a deal yet, dealt yet, and it's something on which CANAL+ will work in the coming months and make their decision in the coming months. On Havas, Havas has done very well during the second quarter, as you said. It has been driven strongly by media business, which is good news. Health & You has done very well as well. I think that was the two business unit which have driven this growth.
Media, the good news is that it does not only come from the, I would say, the pure media buying business, but also from the all the new business which has been launched in data analysis, in all this business of market research, that have helped the performance of the second quarter.
Okay.
Sorry, yeah.
On UMG? Yeah.
sorry, UMG, UMG. Sorry.
Yes.
Last question was on UMG. Yes, it's, it's quite complex, but, if you just stop, if you look at the performance and if you come back at the template I have disclosed earlier.
Yeah.
You see that, the performance- 18? Yes. The net results of the group shares moved from EUR 241 million- EUR 625 million .
Mm.
Nevertheless, last year, these EUR 240 million were including EUR 400 million of revaluation of Spotify. The result before any revaluation was EUR 647 million.
Mm.
This first half, the result is EUR 625 million . Then you restate the EUR 230 million of net positive revaluation, which mean that the net result before any revaluation is EUR 395 million . The results before any revaluation impact, is down from EUR 647 to EUR 293 million. That's why, as we take 10% of it, our contribution moves down. If you ask me why do we have a decrease of this net result before any revaluation? It's clearly among if you look at the communication that has been released yesterday.
Mm.
it's really due to the non-cash share base, compensation expense.
Yeah.
Which are EUR 345 million, according to their financial review. These EUR 345 million are not taking into account into the headline EBITDA.
Mm.
disclosed yesterday. That's...
Yeah.
Sorry to be long, but it's.
No, that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely.
Clear.
Very clear. Thank you. Thank you, François.
Thank you very much, Mr. O'Shea. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, we have time for only one last question, the question will be coming from Matthew Walker, calling from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead, sir.
Thanks. Thanks very much for taking the question. I know it's late. There were two questions, actually. One was on, what is the ambition for CANAL+? I mean, you've been buying stakes in companies in Nordic region, stakes in companies in the Asia Pacific region. Maybe you could sort of give a bit more detail about what your ultimate ambition is for CANAL+ geographically. The second question was on the French football rights. I saw some comments by, I think it was the head of the LFP, saying he wants over EUR 1 billion from the next rights renewal, there were some questions around whether CANAL+, in his view, gonna participate or not. Maybe you can just expand on what your intentions are with the French football rights.
Well, thank you. Well, as regard to the strategy, the strategy of CANAL+ is clear. It's to develop its subscriber base, being a producer, broadcaster and an aggregator. Because we are investing in content production, the more we have scale and numbers of subscribers, the more it gives us the capacity to invest in the content, to strike alliances with third party in terms of co-distribution, and to get a weight of negotiation in the different aspect of our business. We are three geographies which have been clearly expressed as our as regards to the development, which are Europe, which are Africa, and which are Asia.
When you see the different developments and what we are building step by step, with the leadership of Maxime Saada and his team, is really completely aligned with this strategic vision. That's point number one. As regard to the rights of the league, you know, the position, and Maxime Saada has also been very clear when we learned this statement with by the head of the league. We said that it was fetching EUR 1 billion and that CANAL+ will not participate. We were very happy to understand that a third party was speaking on our behalf. We said that with CANAL+, we would be ready to do things and to buy rights in the football in France, but at the right price.
And we'll do what will have to be done, but on a fair relationship with the different stakeholder and at a price that is going to drive value for the company. As we have seen in the past years, the transformation of our approach in terms of rights has been very, very, very successful. You know, some said once that CANAL+ without football rights in France wouldn't be anymore CANAL+, but I'm sorry that facts have proven those bears wrong.
Because at the end of the day, the success of our rugby Top 14 relationship, based on a very strong relationship we're having with the different stakeholders, has proven to be very successful. We're very happy about the long-term relationship with Formula 1 organization. The viewership numbers are going from strength to strength during the different weekends. We've got also the MotoGP . We're happy about the evolution of the English Premier League.
I'm not going to write all the list of what we do, but the reality of our performance, the capacity to bring added value at the right price to our customers, with the way we broadcast sports and the numbers that are proven to be very compelling in terms of viewership, is helping us just to move forward, to grow the business. We'll see what's going to be the situation in due time as regard to the relationship with the French Premier League.
Okay. That's very clear. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Walker. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's Q&A session. I'll let now turn the call back over to your hosts for any additional or closing remarks. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your attendance, and we, François and I, and our team wish you a great summer, and very much look forward to our next session in a few months' time. Till then, be good, and thank you very much again.
Thank you very much. Have a good evening. Bye-bye.
Thank you. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's presentation. Thank you for your attendance. You may now disconnect. Have a good day, and goodbye.