France's Vivendi posts strong Q3, rules out Ubisoft takeover for now

By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Sophie Sassard

PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) - Acquisitive French media conglomerate Vivendi reported higher third-quarter earnings and kept its 2017 outlook for an increase in sales and profit over the year.

Vivendi's third-quarter EBITA (earnings before interest, tax and amortisation) rose 5.7 percent from a year ago to 293 million euros ($345 million), while its revenue increased by 19.3 percent to 3.18 billion euros.

That fell short of a consensus of analysts polled by Inquiry Financial for Reuters who had expected EBITA of 324 million euros.

The group also said it would not launch a takeover bid in the next six months for French video games group Ubisoft, in which it has a 26 percent stake, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Vivendi, chaired by French billionaire Vincent Bollore, has built up stakes in companies such as Telecom Italia, MediaSet and Ubisoft and it bought advertiser Havas this year.

Vivendi kept its 2017 outlook for revenue to increase more than 5 percent and for a rise of around 25 percent in its EBITA, prior to its integration of the Havas business.

($1 = 0.8495 euros)

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, editing by David Evans and Adrian Croft)