Vivendi admits fresh US investigations

The media group Vivendi Universal was dealt a further blow yesterday after admitting that it was facing two further investigations in the United States.

The company said the US Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York had opened a preliminary criminal investigation and noted that the Securities and Exchange Commission's Florida office, which had already begun an informal inquiry, would co-ordinate its activities in the new inquiry.

Vivendi, whose accounts are also being looked at by the French authorities and which is also facing shareholder lawsuits in the US, said yesterday it would "co-operate fully" with the latest investigations.

The French accounting inquiry was launched last week to examine whether Vivendi "published false accounts for 2000 and 2001 to hide the true nature of its financial situation". It will also look at whether the group gave misleading outlook statements for 2001 and 2002.

Vivendi's shares collapse under the tenure of the ousted former chief executive Jean-Marie Messier after his strategy of transforming the business into a media giant left it with about €19bn (£12bn) of debt.

The company, under the new chief executive Jean-René Fourtou, is now desperately trying to sell off assets to cut debt and restore confidence.

It also emerged yesterday that M. Fourtou had written to bankers detailing how Vivendi might fund an offer to buy more shares in the French telecoms group Cegetel. The move, which has unnerved some investors who wanted to see Vivendi focus on cutting debt, comes less than a week after the company turned down a €6.77bn offer for its 44 per cent stake in Cegetel from Vodafone. Last month the UK-based mobile operator launched a €13.07bn bid for the 85 per cent of Cegetel it did not already own, including a €4bn offer for BT's 26 per cent stake and a €2.3bn offer for SBC Communications' 15 per cent share.

M. Fourtou is thought to have written to 11 lenders explaining how it could fund the purchase of the stakes in Cegetel through a special-purpose vehicle – a structure that would let it keep any additional debt off its balance sheet.

A bid to buy more shares in Cegetel is likely to be funded with the proceeds from recent disposals as well as bank financing. Vivendi has until 10 December to come up with the cash for the BT and SBC stakes in Cegetel after a Paris court gave it an extra month to bid.