Vivendi shareholders overwhelmingly backed the spinoff of its profitable Common Music Group, house to recording artists like Taylor Swift, Girl Gaga and Ed Sheeran.
With greater than 99 p.c approval, shareholders on Tuesday voted in favor of the plan to distribute 60 p.c of UMG’s shares to current Vivendi shareholders and to record the corporate on the Euronext Amsterdam inventory change. The French media large mentioned the itemizing would happen on Sept. 21.
The vital vote comes days after Pershing Sq. Tontine Holdings, the blank-check firm of billionaire investor Invoice Ackman, purchased a ten p.c stake in UMG for roughly $4 billion.
Ackman’s deal, which was introduced on Sunday, values UMG at about $41.55 billion. A consortium led by Chinese language tech large Tencent Holdings already owns a 20 p.c fairness stake within the group. Vivendi, managed by French billionaire Vincent Bolloré, is planning to money in on the music firm by spinning off the entity to current shareholders.
Regardless that the spinoff has been given the inexperienced mild from buyers, it has drawn criticism from activist hedge funds, Artisan Companions and Bluebell. They declare that the spinoff disproportionately advantages bigger shareholders, together with Bolloré, over smaller buyers.
Nonetheless, Tuesday’s vote places UMG on a path to affix rival Warner Music Group within the public market. The third-largest recording label, which owns Atlantic, Elektra, Warner Information and music writer Warner Chappell Music, listed on the Nasdaq final June.
