Vivendi, the French conglomerate, underlined its determination yesterday to secure full ownership of France's second-largest mobile phone operator by buying out Vodafone.

Jean-Bernard Lévy, Vivendi's chairman, expressed confidence that Vodafone could be persuaded to sell its minority stake in SFR. He suggested that the UK mobile phone group's interest in buying wireless businesses in emerging markets might be a catalyst. Vivendi owns 56 per cent of SFR and Vodafone the rest.