Vivendi snatches up Cegetel stake

Vodafone last night saw its hopes of acquiring control of Cegetel - France's second largest telecoms group - dashed after cash-strapped Vivendi Universal trumped its bid for an important stake.

Vivendi chairman Jean-René Fourtou said his company had raised the finance to buy BT's 26% holding in Cegetel for €4bn - giving it 70% of the group.

The offer matches Vodafone's rival bid, tabled in October, but takes priority under a shareholder agreement which allows Vivendi to pre-empt any offer to buy shares in the group. That right was due to expire next week, forcing Vivendi into a race against time to raise the cash.

Mr Fourtou immediately held out an olive branch to the UK firm, which will remain a formidable presence within Cegetel. It already owns 15% and will acquire another 15% when it buys out the fourth Cegetel shareholder, SBC, as well as taking its holding in Cegetel mobile subsidiary SFR to 44%.

The Vivendi chairman and chief executive said he had spoken to Vodafone chief Sir Christopher Gent and that the pair planned to work together over Cegetel. "I talked to Gent yesterday, and we agreed that now the competition is over we will listen to each other and cooperate [over Cegetel]."

A Vodafone spokeswoman said the British company believed its offer had been a fair one and had always made clear it was not prepared to overpay by increasing it.

She said Vodafone was not disappointed, adding:"[Vodafone] has a European footprint and in the long term, we believe [Cegetel's] natural home would be with Vodafone, but we are quite happy with the situation as it is."

Vivendi, which also announced the departure of three directors - Marc Viénot, Jean-Luc Espalioux and Jacques Friedmann - said it had set up a special purpose vehicle to buy the Cegetel stake. It said that despite the purchase it remained committed to selling €16bn of assets to cut its debt burden.

Earlier BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen said his group was unconcerned who won the battle for the Cegetel stake as BT was guaranteed €4bn, whatever the result. "Money is money ... a cheque is a cheque. I'm very happy with €4bn, who wouldn't be?"