It’s déjà vu all over again as Vivendi suffers another Italian defeat

Italian Media company Mediaset wants to merge its Italian and Spanish businesses, something that significant shareholder Vivendi opposes.

The combined company would be called MediaFor Europe and a Mediaset EGM recently voted to go ahead with the merger plan. French conglomerate Vivendi owns around 30% of Mediaset, but two thirds of its stake is held in a trust by a company called Simon Fiduciaria, following a ruling by the Italian telecoms regulator that owning big chunks of both Mediaset and operator group TIM violates media plurality laws.

Subsequently it seems to have been decided that Simon Fiduciaria doesn’t get a vote in Mediaset general meetings, thus greatly diminishing Vivendi’s voice at such events. Vivendi reckons that’s the only reason the Berlusconi family, which owns almost half of Mediaset via its investment vehicle Finnivest, won the recent vote and it’s not happy about it.

“Vivendi deplores today’s irregular approval by the Mediaset Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting of the new merger plan regarding MediaForEurope,” said a Vivendi press release. “The new plan has only gained approval because of the unlawful refusal to allow Simon Fiduciaria (which holds 19.9% of Mediaset share capital) to vote, relying on an interpretation of the Italian media law which is contrary to the EU Treaty.

“In addition, the new plan was adopted ignoring Italian law procedures regarding trans-border mergers, including the withdrawal rights for shareholders, and has merely removed some blatantly abusive clauses, without modifying the disproportionate rights granted to Fininvest.

“All recent judicial decisions and opinions, in particular from the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union in December, have not discouraged Fininvest’s representatives in the Mediaset Board from depriving minority shareholders of their most basic rights. The Mediaset Board has once again placed the company in a situation of serious legal uncertainty.”

All this huffing and puffing from a massive conglomerate that routinely tries to hijack the running of large companies without going to the trouble of buying them is a bit rich. Last year Vivendi’s protracted attempt to do so at TIM failed and history seems to be repeating itself, with Mediaset also regarding Vivendi’s interest in the company as hostile. Vivendi’s principle objection to this merger seems to be a dilution of its shareholding in the combined entity, rather than anything to do with the strategy and health of the company as a whole.