Ubisoft announced today that the publisher's battle with Vivendi is over after three years of fighting for securing its independence. Ubisoft and Vivendi SA has came to an agreement, meaning that Vivendi will sell all of its share in Ubisoft, vividly 30,489,300 shares. The deal includes an investment of two companies, the Relationship Investing arm of Ontario Teachers' Public Equities division and Tencent.
Vivendi also has agreed to no acquire any shares in Ubisoft for at least five years. Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft's CEO and Co-Founder, said in press release: "
The evolution in our shareholding is great news for Ubisoft. It was made possible thanks to the outstanding execution of our strategy and the decisive support of Ubisoft talents, players and shareholders. I would like to warmly thank them all. The investment from new long-term shareholders in Ubisoft demonstrates their trust in our future value creation potential, and Ubisoft's share buy-back will be accretive to all shareholders. Finally, the new strategic partnership agreement we signed will enable Ubisoft to accelerate its development in China in the coming years and fully leverage a market with great potential."
Ontario Teachers' Public Equities will buy 3,787,878 Ubisoft shares (3.4% of capital) as Tencent has committed to acquire 5,591,469 Ubisoft shares (5.0% of capital). Both companies will pay €66 per share and their investment doesn't secures any representation on the company's board of directors. The Chinese multinational investment holding conglomerate won't transfer its shares nor to increase its share ownership and voting rights in Ubisoft. Tencent also agreed to create a strategic partnership with Ubisoft to accelerate the reach of Ubisoft franchises in China in the coming years.
Thanks to the agreement, The French company will buy back up to 9,090,909 of its own shares (8.1% of capital) from Vivendi. As part of the transaction, Guillemot Brothers SE agreed to acquire 3,030,303 shares (2.7% of capital). But what about Vivendi? Well, as part of this agreement, Vivendi will get approximately $2.45 billion for the sold shares, thanks to the rocketing price of Ubisoft's shares.
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