Mathieu Rosamain, Elvira Pollina

PARIS/MILAN. (Reuters) Vivendi (OTC) wrote down 728 Million Euro ($805 M) on its stake in PARIS/MILAN. Telecom Italia (MI:) In 2021. The French media group reported Wednesday that it had seen a double in its core operating earnings in the same time period.

Vincent Bollore (a billionaire) is the biggest shareholder in Paris, and he holds 24% of the company. It represents an initial investment totalling 3.9 billion euros.

Private equity firm KKR presented a non-binding proposal to Telecom Italia in November. It was priced at 0.505 Euro per share and valued Italy’s biggest telecoms company at 10.8 million euros.

Vivendi had a 1.07 euro average buy price for Telecom Italia shares. However, Telecom Italia has a 0.63 euro book value per share (tim shares) as of June 20,21. This is according to Reuters, which was based upon available documents.

A spokesperson for Vivendi stated that the book value at TIM was 0.657 Euro per share. TIM shares ended Wednesday close at 0.26 Euro each

Arnaud du Puyfontaine (Vivendi CEO) praised Pietro Labriola as TIM’s new boss in a conference call. He also confirmed that KKR’s original approach to the telephone company was undervalued.

He said, “It’s an important turning point for Telecom Italia.” “We believe its value is much greater than its current share prices and the virtual value that KKR mentioned in its statement.

Vivendi is supportive of Labriola’s turnaround plan to TIM, de Puyfontaine said.

Two sources close to this matter confirmed that a TIM board meeting will take place on Sunday to respond to the KKR proposal.

Vivendi also stated that it took an impairment charge for 200 million Euros on Gameloft’s mobile game maker Gameloft. This was due to a decrease in the performance of this division.

The strong growth of Canal Plus, Havas Advertising Unit, Editis Publishing Division, as well as Canal Plus’ pay-TV group Canal Plus have helped to more than double the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization to 690million euros last year.

Vivendi didn’t provide any targets for this year.

($1 = 0.9039 euros)