Vivendi Universal's battered stock began a nervous recovery after a team of French business veterans took charge, vowing to avert a cash crisis without breaking up the media group.
The new management team set to work on a rescue mission to tackle the huge debt left behind by ousted empire builder Mr Jean-Marie Messier, sending Vivendi's shares as much as 17 per cent higher after a grueling sell-off this week.
In a sign the French establishment had moved in to save the teetering group, Vivendi unveiled a team of French business heavyweights led by new chairman and CEO Mr Jean-Rene Fourtou to take the reins of the world's second biggest media group.
Vivendi appointed Axa Insurance boss Mr Claude Bebear, one of France's most influential businessmen and the driving force behind Mr Messier's ejection, to the board and put him in charge of a new finance committee, making him the power behind Vivendi's throne.
"Bebear has the credibility to restore market confidence," bankers CSFB said in a research note.
The first task for the new team will be to secure short-term funds after the group's debt ratings were cut to high-risk junk level. Vivendi said it was already in talks with its main credit banks to secure new credit "as soon as feasible" and the group set a two-week deadline to resolve its cash problems.
Concerns that Vivendi is struggling with its €19 billion debt after its credit ratings were slashed, wiped a third off the market value of the group in just three days this week, even as investors cheered Messier's downfall.
The shares have lost 75 per cent so far this year amid mounting fears of a cash crisis or accounting and debt problems. But they closed up 5.5 per cent at €14.7 yesterday after Mr Fourtou said he was confident Vivendi could make ends meet.
"The new team was essentially hired to sort out Vivendi's short-term liquidity and it's likely to succeed in that. That's all the market wants right now, it's not worrying about strategy too much," said one London-based analyst.