Vivendi Q1 sales soars

PARIS, Apr 15 (Reuters): French media conglomerate Vivendi posted higher first-quarter revenue on Monday, and said it was forging ahead with the planned sale of up to 50 per cent of its UMG music arm.

Vivendi plans to sell the stake in UMG, whose soaring profit has been a key driver of the group's stock price, in order to maximise UMG's value and help fund the purchases of other businesses.

The growing public thirst for subscription and ad-based music streaming services, and the recent signing of several major licence deals, have put the owners of music rights such as UMG in the spotlight of investors' as they compete with streaming platforms such as Spotify.

Vivendi's sales jumped 10.7 per cent from last year to 3.46 billion euros ($3.91 billion), boosted by UMG and Vivendi's recent acquisition of the Editis publishing business.