By Mauro Orru and Carlo Martuscelli

A court in Amsterdam ruled in favor of the creation of MediaForEurope, Mediaset SpA's planned pan-European media and entertainment holding company, in a defeat for Vivendi SA.

The French media conglomerate is a shareholder in Mediaset and had mounted a legal challenge to the planned holding company. The Amsterdam court found that the merger of Mediaset's Italian and Spanish operations to create Dutch subsidiary MediaForEurope wasn't in violation of the law.

Vivendi has opposed the merger on the grounds that it "disregards basic shareholders' rights."

The decision comes nearly three weeks after an extraordinary shareholders' meeting of Mediaset Espana Comunicacion SA, which paved the way for the planned merger and mirrored changes already approved at Mediaset's extraordinary general meeting in Italy on Jan. 10.

at 1615 GMT, shares in Mediaset traded 5.1% higher at EUR2.27 and Mediaset Espana shares rose 3.1% to EUR4.84.

Write to Carlo Martuscelli at carlo.martuscelli@wsj.com; @carlomartu

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 26, 2020 11:45 ET (16:45 GMT)