Vivendi considers listing Universal Music Group

Vivendi shares got a 3 percent bump on Thursday after the chief executiꩲve of the Paris conglomerate said it is weighing a public listing of its Universal Music Group.

“We have started work that will allow us to present the benefits of a potential listing of UMG to the supervisory board,” Chief Executive Arnaud de Puyfontaine ♏said at Vivendi’s shareholder meeting.

De Puyfontaine didn’t reveal how soon he might pull the trigger on an IPO of the world’s No𒈔. 1 music label, which accounts for 46 percent of the parent company’s revenue and 72 percent of operating income.

But an IPO has long been on the mind of Vivendi chai🧜rman Vincent Bolloré, who announced at Thursday’s meeting that his son, Yannick, would succeed him.

For exღample, when asked about untethering UMG last year, Bolloré père called the timing exceedingly tricky.

“It’s like cheese puffs,” h🎶e said. “♏You have to take them out at the right moment.”

Many 💜believe UMG’s “moment” began last August, when Goldman Sachs analyst Lisa Yang put a $23.3 billion value on Vivendiꦅ’s music segment.

That’s 72 percent of the value the market places on the entire conglomerate, which also houses the film and TV operations of Canalಌ+Group, ad company Havas and video-game publisher Gameloft.

Driven by streamin😼g revenue for such artists as Katy Perry, Drake and The Beatles, UMG posted revenue gains of 7.7 percent ⭕in 2017.

UMG controls a 29.7 percent stake of ꦑthe music business, according to figures released Thursday by MIDiA Research.

UMG had another “moment” in January when JPMorgan𝓀 Cazenove issued a report that asserted if Spotify was worth $20 billion, then UMG was worth more than $40 billion.

Spotify, which began trading publicly on April 3, has since seꦓen its market cap climb to $27.3 billion.

By comparison, when Sir Lucian Grainge was appointed UMG’s CEO in 2010, Vivendi’s music business was valued at $6 bil🦋lion.