UMG Accelerates IPO Timeline
• Late last month RAMP reported that Tencent Holdings Limited had completed the acquisition of an additional 10% equity stake — for a total of 20% — in Universal Music Group (UMG) from its parent company, Vivendi SE, based on an enterprise value of 30 billion euros (about $36.4 billion U.S.). At that time Vivendi announced a UMG IPO was planned “in early 2022.”
In a statement issued on Saturday, Vivendi’s Management Board announced it would consider a distribution of 60% of UMG’s share capital to existing shareholders. This distribution, exclusively in kind, would take the form of an exceptional distribution (“special dividend”). The listing of the shares of UMG, a holding company currently being incorporated in the Netherlands, would be applied for on the regulated market of the Euronext NV exchange in Amsterdam. The transaction has received an initial favorable response from the Tencent-led consortium with whom the planned listing will be examined.
A Vivendi Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting will be called for March 29, 2021 to modify the company’s by-laws and make this distribution possible. Subject to a positive shareholder vote, Vivendi will continue to work on this project, including a Shareholders’ Meeting to approve the distribution and subsequent completion of the transaction before the end of 2021. (Additional coverage by The Hollywood Reporter)
