MILANO – Habemus pacem: after five years of lawsuits and disputes Mediaset and Vivendi sign a grave agreement to settle all civil cases, from the one for the Daily Motion portal (for which compensation of 26.3 million is expected) to those in the court of Milan on the failure to purchase Premium.
With peace, Vivendi undertakes to support Mediaset’s international plan, to revise the statute by canceling the increased vote (which will be voted on the 27 May assembly) and the one to move the registered office to the Netherlands (scheduled for the 23 June assembly) ).
As for governance, as long as Vivendi remains a minority shareholder, it will be able to participate, but it will not do so in a hostile way. All hostilities, as well as lawsuits, cease with the agreement signed today after days of intense negotiations between Fininvest’s lawyer, Luca Fossati of the Chiomenti firm, and Vivendi’s lawyer, Giuseppe Scassellati-Fronzolini of Cleary Gottlieb. It seems that the time to sign the truce has been lengthened by the interference of another major law firm. Studio BonelliErede instead assisted Mesiaset in the negotiation.
Vivendi, which had joined Mediaset in November 2016, raking up 28.8% on the stock market, will now tiptoe out of the shareholder structure within 5 years. After all, the court of first instance quantified the damage suffered by Mediaset for the unilateral termination of the pay TV agreement at only 1.7 million, giving Vivendi reasons.
The trust company Simon (19.1% of the capital) is expected to gradually dismantle its position on the market over a period of 5 years, unless Fininvest decides to exercise its pre-emption on part of the shares that should not be sold. Vivendi, on the other hand, will directly sell half of its share, or 5%, directly by the summer, at a price that is slightly higher than the current one (i.e. 2.7 euros) to Fininvest (which has a call option on this share) remaining a shareholder with approximately 4.6%.
The financial company of the Berlusconi family should then ask for the integration of the agenda of the assembly of 23 June and the distribution of an extraordinary dividend of 0.30 euros. The two companies undertake not to interfere in each other’s sphere of activity in the future, except in the case of the auction on M6 in France where both are oriented to compete transparently.
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