Paris Court docket Guidelines Bolloré Does Not Train Management Over Vivendi

The Paris Court docket of Attraction dominated on Wednesday that French tycoon Vincent Bolloré and his Bolloré Group don’t train management over media and leisure group Vivendi.

The ruling, which was confirmed by Vivendi in a press release, is important as a result of a call in the wrong way might have triggered an compulsory buyout of Vivendi by Bolloré, with some estimates suggesting this might have value the group greater than $10B.

The ruling follows a declare by minority Vivendi investor CIAM which started within the wake of Vivendi’s 2024 breakup, and the spinning-off of Canal Plus, Havas, and Louis Hachette.

Underneath that operation, which gained the approval of 97% of the Vivendi shareholders, the Bolloré Group retained a 29.3% stake in Vivendi. Underneath French regulation, shareholders surpassing a 30% possession threshold should launch a buyout supply.

CIAM argued that whereas Bollore’s stake in Vivendi was beneath the brink, it successfully managed the group.

Following Wednesday’s ruling, CIAM companion and president Catherine Berjal mentioned the investor group could be launching an enchantment on the Court docket of Cassation.

A earlier April 2025 Court docket of Attraction ruling said that Vivendi was de facto managed by Vincent Bolloré and the Bolloré Group, paving the way in which for a compulsory buyout. This was then overruled by the Court docket of Cassation in November 2025, which referred the case again to the Court docket of Attraction.

The contemporary ruling sees Paris’ Court docket of Attraction reject Legal professional Basic Carla Deveille-Fontinha’s argument that Bolloré did management Vivendi on the idea that the group had “by no means encountered any opposition” at AGMs and that “selections missing Vincent Bolloré’s help”  weren’t adopted.

It might even have a knock-on impact for the Common Music Group, by which the Bolloré Group owns an 18.4% stake, and Vivendi owns a 13.4% stake. There had been solutions that the Bolloré Group must promote it’s UMG stake to finance a compulsory Vivendi buyout.

This chance has weighed on the UMG share value, whereas Cyrille Bolloré, Chair and CEO of the Bolloré Group, instructed the group’s AGM in Paris in Might that he had inspired UMG administration to reject a $64.4B supply from Invoice Ackman’s Pershing Sq..