PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French media and music company Vivendi SA (VIVEF.PK) on Friday said its net income to shareholders in fiscal 2014 surged to 4.74 billion euros or 3.5 euros per share from 1.97 billion euros or 1.47 euros per share last year.
Results reflect gains on the divestitures of SFR totaling 2.4 billion euros, 786 million from Maroc Telecom, 179 million euros from Beats, as well as half of the remaining stake in Activision Blizzard of 84 million euros, and conversely, the premiums paid of 642 million euros on bond redemptions.
As part of divestment process, Vivendi has sold mobile companies SFR (France) to Patrick Drahi's company, Numericable and GVT (Brazil) to the Spanish company Telefonica.
Prior to that in November 2013, Vivendi agreed to sell its majority and controlling stake in Maroc Telecom (Morocco) to Etisalat based in Abu Dhabi. Recently, Vivendi lost control of Activision Blizzard.
Excluding items, Vivendi reported adjusted earnings in 2014 of 626 million euros or 0.46 euros per share compared with 454 million euros or 0.34 euros per share in the prior year.
Adjusted earnings were driven by a drop in interest expense and an increase in EBITA and a decrease in the share attributable to non-controlling interests, partly by a drop in income from investments.
The company's EBIT in 2014 rose 15.6 percent from the prior year to 736 million euros, and mainly included the capital gain on the sale of UMG's interest in Beats.
Vivendi said its revenues in 2014 fell 1.6 percent to 10.01 billion euros from 10.3 billion euros a year ago. On a constant currency basis, revenues fell 1.1 percent.
At its pay-TV and movie producing business, Canal+ Group, revenues rose 2.7 percent from last year to 5.46 billion euros. Growth was due to its international activities which offset a slowdown in France resulting from a VAT increase at the beginning of 2014, the company said.
Universal Music Group revenues fell 6.7 percent to 4.56 billion euros as the business was confronted with a faster than expected transformation of music distribution modes with robust growth in streaming compared to digital downloads and physical sales.
Vivendi said the earnings were in line with expectations and reflect the strong resilience of the Group's main activities in a difficult environment.
For the fourth quarter, the company reported net income to shareholders of 1.99 billion euros or 1.47 euros per share, sharply up from 556 million euros or 0.41 euros per share last year.
Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were 184 million euros or 0.14 euros per share compared with 153 million euros or 0.11 euros per share in the prior year.
EBIT for the quarter was lower at 62 million euros compared with 134 million euros a year ago.
Revenues for the quarter marginally rose to 2.97 billion euros from 2.96 billion euros in the prior year.
For the full year 2015, Vivendi expects a slight growth in revenues fueled by the development of UMG streaming and Canal+ Group's international activities. Vivendi also expects an increase in adjusted earnings of about 10 percent, due to lower restructuring charges and interest expense.
Vivendi said it would be proposed to the annual shareholders' meeting on April 17 that an ordinary dividend of 1 euro be paid with respect to 2014.
Also, the company expects to launch a share buyback, within the legal limit of 10% of the share capital, for about 2.7 billion euros, at a maximum purchase price of 20 euros per share. The program should run over a period of 18 months.
In total, the return to shareholders could reach about 5.7 billion euros by mid-2017, Vivendi said.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX