Vivendi completes sale of remaining Numericable-SFR stake

PARIS (Reuters) - Vivendi has completed the sale of its remaining 20 percent stake in French telecoms group Numericable-SFR, the French media group said on Wednesday. Vivendi said it had received a first payment of 1.8 billion euros (£1.3 billion) from Numericable-SFR under the terms of the sale agreement announced on Feb. 27, which called for a price per share of 40 euros. A second 1.9 billion-euro instalment is due by April 7, 2016 from Numericable-SFR's majority shareholder Altice. In a separate statement, Altice and Numericable said that half the stake, or 10 percent of Numericable-SFR shares, would be cancelled after the transaction. As a result, Altice, which is controlled by billionaire entrepreneur Patrick Drahi, will then own 70.4 percent of the share capital and voting rights of Numericable-SFR. Numericable is France's second biggest telecom company, with a market value of 23.6 billion euro. It competes with leader Orange, Bouygues Telecom, and low-cost player Iliad. Both Numericable and Altice will report first-quarter results on Tuesday. (Reporting by Laurence Frost and Leila Abboud; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Elaine Hardcastle)