Mediaset sees opportunities to work with Vivendi
MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's biggest commercial broadcaster Mediaset sees opportunities to work with French group Vivendi although no joint projects are in the offing, Mediaset's vice chairman said on Wednesday.
Pier Silvio Berlusconi also said selling the Berlusconi family's controlling stake in Mediaset was out of the question, following a report in a French publication this week that Vivendi was "actively looking" at a purchase of Mediaset.
Vivendi has 15 billion euros of cash that it wants to deploy to become a champion in European media and speculation that it could consider taking over Mediaset this week sent shares in the Italian group to their highest since mid-April.
"There is the possibility to work together, but there are no projects that will start in the very short term," Berlusconi, son of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, told reporters at a shareholder meeting.
Expectations that Vivendi could turn its attention to Italy come as the French group is set to become the largest investor in phone group Telecom Italia, an asset that could be useful in any deal with Mediaset as telecoms and media converge.
Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest recently sold 8 percent of Mediaset on the market, a move a Citi analyst said "would not make sense before a full disposal".
Fininvest is left with a 33.4 percent stake in Mediaset, enough to block unwanted decisions.
Pier Silvio Berlusconi said the group was open to a partnership for his pay-TV unit Mediaset Premium but did not want to sell the business, which made it difficult to reach a deal with rival Rupert Murdoch's Sky.
Sources told Reuters last week that Sky had made an approach to buy Mediaset Premium and had been rebuffed but informal contacts continued.
Berlusconi said meetings between his family and Murdoch's took place regularly to discuss various themes. Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox owns 39 percent of pay-TV group Sky.
Mediaset has held talks with Vivendi and others over a possible deal involving Mediaset Premium, which last year won prized exclusive rights to broadcast Champions League soccer matches in Italy.
(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi, writing by Silvia Aloisi and Danilo Masoni; Editing by Gareth Jones)
