Mediaset Asks Court to Enforce Deal to Sell Pay-TV Unit to Vivendi

By Giada Zampano

ROME--Italian broadcaster Mediaset SpA on Friday said it has filed a request with a Milan tribunal seeking enforcement of a contract to sell is pay-TV unit to French media giant Vivendi SA.

The Italian broadcaster said that for now it is seeking compensation estimated at 50 million euros ($56.6 million) a month starting from July 25 for damages stemming from a delay in executing the contract. The legal action, it added, doesn't take in the overall damages the Italian company would suffer if Vivendi fails to respect the accord. Mediaset says the overall damages would top EUR1.5 billion.

In April, the French company agreed to acquire its Italian counterpart's pay-TV unit in a deal that included swapping 3.5% stakes between Mediaset and Vivendi.

But three months later, the Vivendi sent a letter to Mediaset, which is controlled by the family of former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, in which it proposed new terms. Those new terms would have Vivendi buying only 20% of the pay-TV unit and acquiring 15% of Mediaset itself in three years. Vivendi added that it was seeking to amend the contract in light of "significant differences in the analysis" of the financial results of Mediaset's pay-TV unit, Mediaset Premium.

At the end of July, Mediaset's board rejected the changes proposed by Vivendi to the pay-television deal, setting up a legal showdown between the two European media giants.

Fininvest, the Berlusconi holding company that controls Mediaset, accused Vivendi of attempting to build "an extremely large stake in Mediaset in an underhanded and unacceptable way."

Vivendi, which is run by French billionaire Vincent Bolloré, rejected accusations adding that the April agreement was based on a business plan "that proved to be wildly optimistic or even totally unworkable."

-Write to Giada Zampano at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 19, 2016 14:17 ET (18:17 GMT)

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