Vivendi unclear on what to do with GVT post demerger

French media and telecoms conglomerate Vivendi is unclear as to what will be the fate of its Brazilian telecoms unit Global Village Telecom (GVT) once it has completed its planned demerger of its French telecoms unit in 2014. Once that plan is finalised, Vivendi will be left with the rump of its mainly media-related businesses, along with pay-TV operator Canal Plus and Universal Music Group. However, it will still retain GVT and Reuters quotes Vivendi CFO Philippe Capron as saying that the group’s new management team will have to decide whether or not to keep the Brazilian unit. ‘We cannot answer that now,’ Capron is quoted as saying, adding: ‘The management of the new media group will need a new equity [plan] and a strategy and they will have to decide how GVT fits into that’. The official confirmed that for now at least, Vivendi is not looking at any disposal of GVT and is backing its management and development plans.