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Paris (pte031/11.03.2003/12:05) - French pay-TV station Canal Plus http://www.canaplus.fr is planning massive job cuts, as well as the sale of assets outside TV company's core business.
The detailed restructuring plan is to be revealed later this week, as reported by the Financial Times (FT). The company is currently negotiating with labour unions to create a social plan for the up to 700 employees facing release.
"We have too many people, too many legal representatives and too much complexity," said the company's new head Bertrand Meheut, explaining the situation from his point of view.
Canal Plus is part of the Vivendi Universal media group http://www.vivendiuniversal.com , which reported the greatest loss in the history of the French economy last year. One source of loss was a depreciation of 5.4bn euros at Canal Plus, which cut the subscription channel's value in half.
Canal Plus, which has debts of up to five billion euros, reported operating losses of 325m euros in 2002. According to FT, the production line Expand and the cable firm Numericable are up for sale, along with subsidiaries in Scandinavia and the Benelux countries. Canal Plus has already agreed to sell its Italian subscription channel Telepiu to News Corp for 893m euros.
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