Booming Vivendi 'in great shape'

Vivendi says 2005 has been "a year of major investments"

French telecoms and media giant Vivendi Universal has reported a big rise in profits, in a further sign of recovery from its near-collapse three years ago.

The company said its operating profit for the first half of 2005 was 1.99bn euros ($2.46bn; £1.34bn) - a rise of 34% compared with last year.

Music and telecoms divisions were major factors in the improvement.

Chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy said Vivendi was now "in great shape" and would beat its targets for the year.

Mr Levy said 2005 had been "a year of major investments in the creation and acquisition of content, in networks and in distribution platforms".

He added: "We will now exceed our announced 2005 adjusted net income target for the year of at least 1.8bn euros."

Strengths and weaknesses

Analysts said Vivendi's mobile phone business SFR had put in a strong performance, while the UMG music group had also outpaced expectations.

However, they noted that profits from Canal Plus television and the VUG games division were lower than expected.

Vivendi, originally a staid French water utility, transformed itself into the world's second-biggest media conglomerate during a late 1990s acquisition spree led by former chief executive Jean-Marie Messier.

But the takeovers led to huge debts, triggering a financial crisis three years ago that cost Mr Messier his job.

In 2002, Vivendi crashed to a full-year loss of 23.3bn euros, the biggest in French corporate history.