Vivendi today posted flat third-quarter sales growth after poor trading at its French SFR mobile operator and its music business.
The French telecoms and media group reported sales for the three months to September 30th of €4.889 billion ($6.22 billion). The shares, which fell more than 2 per cent at the opening, were down 2.10 per cent at €29.40 earlier this morning.
Sales from SFR, France's second-largest mobile operator, fell 1.8 per cent to €2.196 billion in the third quarter, undershooting an average forecast from six analysts for €2.242 billion.
Vivendi said the decline had been largely caused by lower prices imposed by the telecoms regulator.
Vivendi, which owns Universal Music Group, had at the weekend confirmed press reports that it had received a friendly takeover approach from US private equity firm KKR, but it said talks had not led to an offer.
At Universal Music Group, the world's biggest record company, Vivendi blamed unfavourable exchange rates for the 2.1 per cent drop in revenues to €1.096 billion. At constant exchange rates, it said third-quarter sales would have risen 0.8 per cent.
However, digital music sales - music that can be downloaded from the Internet to computers and mobile phones - continued to rise, climbing 88 per cent in the third quarter against the same period in 2005.