Vivendi Chairman: We Need Time and Money to Build a New Vivendi

By Ruth Bender

PARIS--Vivendi SA (VIV.FR) Chairman Vincent Bollore Friday called on investors to be patient as the French media group works towards building a new global content company ahead of a crucial vote that will decide how much leeway the group's largest shareholder will have over steering the company's future development.

"To build Vivendi, we need time and money," Mr. Bollore told shareholders at the first annual meeting he is presiding over as the company's chairman and largest shareholder.

The meeting comes after a tumultuous month for Vivendi as it faced criticism from a U.S. hedge fund that pushed the company to agree to raise the amount of money that will be returned to shareholders.

The activist push came as investors continue to wonder where the owner of Universal Music and French pay TV Canal Plus is headed in the future and how it will use the large cash pile it has accumulated from selling off many assets over the past years.

Mr. Bollore also justified Vivendi's decision to back a French law that will give shareholders that have held shares in companies for two years double voting rights. A group of minority shareholders has proposed a resolution to waiver the law, wanting to stick with a one-share, one-vote principle. Vivendi is asking holders to reject this resolution.

If shareholders reject the resolution, it will allow Mr. Bollore to gain further control over the company in which he has nearly tripled his stake in recent weeks. The French billionaire holds 14.5% in the group via his family-controlled conglomerate Groupe Bollore. He took over as chairman last June.

"Two years is extremely reasonable," Mr. Bollore said in reference to the French law. "It's time that allows a group to grow and progress."

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