The media group, French Vivendi, has announced this Tuesday the sale of the 10% of Universal Music Group (UMG) to a consortium led by the technology giant chinese Tencent for approximately 3,000 million euros. The operation, which will be completed during the first half of 2020, requires an evaluation of the set of the branch of Vivendi in 30,000 million euros.
Tencent also has the option to acquire, on the same basis of prices, up to another additional 10% of the capital of UMG until January 15, 2021, has informed the French group in a statement.
Vivendi stresses that the entry of the chinese group and its co-investors will assume that Universal Music, which owns the rights to artists such as Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and The Beatles, will develop further in the asian market.
For its part, Tencent, has shown its satisfaction with the operation, which will result in support UMG in its growth. It has also highlighted that it will work with Vivendi in order to increase the opportunities available to artists and enrich the experiences of the fans. The French group has indicated that the operation could be completed with the purchase of a minority stake by Tencent company, a subsidiary of Universal Music which manages its operations in China.
UMG is the main source of profits of the French group of media, parent company of the group Canal +, of the company of video games for mobile phones Gameloft or of the platform of online videos Dailymotion. In the third quarter of 2018, the revenue from the subsidiary’s music grew 16% to 1,800 million euros.
