Middle East music to Vivendi's ears

Media Summit special: Vivendi boss says his firm is in talks with banks and businesses in region over partnerships

The global media company Vivendi is looking to expand its Middle East reach by linking with some of the region's biggest players.

The chairman and chief executive of Vivendi, Jean-Bernard Levy, said the group was in discussions with a number of telecommunications companies and banks in the region. It recently opened an office in Dubai.

"We are working with partners that have not yet been disclosed," Mr Levy said on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit yesterday. "It's a young office and we hope to announce more partnerships within weeks and months. We are working hard to make it happen."

Vivendi is the French owner of Universal Music Group and the video games publisher Activision Blizzard, and holds majority stakes in the telecoms group SFR and the pay-TV company Canal+.

The media conglomerate also holds a 53 per cent stake in Maroc Telecom in Morocco, and signed a content deal with Qatar Telecom (Qtel) through Universal Music last year.

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"We have a solid path to growth in the Mena region, especially in the music business," Mr Levy said.

Outside of the Middle East, Vivendi has been in discussions about buying the remaining stakes in SFR and Canal+.

Mr Levy said he was interested in acquiring full ownership of the French mobile operator SFR from partner Vodafone if the "price is right".

Having recently sold its 20 per cent holding in US entertainment company NBC Universal for £5.8 billion (Dh34.26bn), Mr Levy said the group would draw on existing credit lines to help buy Vodafone's stake.

Vodafone of the UK is rumoured to be seeking a price near £8bn, while Vivendi is reportedly unwilling to exceed £6bn.

"If a transaction were to be made, Vivendi has sufficient loans from current banking arrangements," Mr Levy said. "There's no doubt that our balance sheet has the potential to fund such a transaction. There is no scenario where Vivendi would pursue new shares."

Mr Levy said Vodafone appeared willing to sell but declined to say whether the two companies were in talks on a deal.

The group also appears to be in a stalemate with the French media group Lagardere over Canal+. Mr Levy said he had not been able to persuade Lagardere to sell its 20 per cent stake in the TV channel, and the French rival would now float its holding.

"They have said whatever happens they want to go public, and it is going public," Mr Levy said.

The music video website Vevo, a joint venture between Vivendi, Abu Dhabi Media and Sony Music, will launch in the Middle East by the end of June and in the UK within weeks, he confirmed.

Abu Dhabi Media, the organiser of the summit, is the owner and publisher of The National.

Since launching in December 2009, Vevo has been limited to North American viewership. But traffic has since been impressive, with its monthly unique viewership increasing 62 per cent in the US to 43.7 million as of last June, recent company statistics show.

Vevo's mobile application for the iPhone was downloaded more than 1 million times in the first week it was made available last August. It has also been embraced by major artists, who have uploaded more than 26,300 videos to the service.

"It has been a tremendous success and this will help consumers from the Middle East to access thousands of videos and music content," Mr Levy said.