Vivendi Universal, in half-yearly figures, is showing progress in its battle to turn the business around as net losses and debt narrow, but revealed little further detail of the $40bn merger of its US entertainment assets with NBC.
The French media and telecommunications group said net losses in the first half of 2003 narrowed to 632m ($724m) compared with 12.3bn last year, while net debt dropped to 13.7bn from 35bn. The figures were slightly better than expected.
Vivendi repeated its guidance for the full year saying it expected further growth in operating income and cash flow and predicted a return to profit excluding non-recurring items and goodwill. It added that following the NBC merger, net debt at the end of 2003 would be about 13bn, falling to below 5bn at the end of 2004.