France's Vivendi Universal posted a worse-than-expected 2003 net loss today but reported a core profit as the media and communications firm slowly emerges from more than two years of turmoil.
Vivendi is still in the red mostly because of one-time items and faces scepticism from analysts about its medium to long-term strategy. But it has usually managed operating profits at most of its core units.
The company, whose assets include the world's largest music company, France's number-two cell phone operator SFR and the country's leading pay television business, predicted good profit growth this year and stable operating cashflow.
It reported a 2003 net loss of 1.143 billion euros ($1.41billion) compared to a year-earlier loss of 23.3 billion euros- the deepest known loss ever by a French company. The figure was worse than a consensus 917 million loss expected by analysts.
The figure included an asset impairment charge of 1.8 billion euros, compared to 18.4 billion in such charges in 2002.
But operating profits of 3.309 billion euros, which it said were up 61 percent on a pro-forma basis, beat expectations. Analysts had predicted operating income of 3.084 billion euros.
Vivendi also repeated it would pay a dividend next year.