Moody's Investors Service, the ratings agency, has lowered the credit rating of Vivendi Environnement, the French environmental services company partly owned by the media conglomerate, due to doubts over the cross default provisions in an equity-linked bond.

Moody's lowered the company's rating from A3 to Baa1 on Monday and has put it under review for possible downgrade due to a cross default provision with Vivendi Universal. The ratings agency said: "In our opinion, the existence of this provision creates an element of vulnerability of Vivendi Environnement to Vivendi Universal which remains outside its control until after this issue has been eliminated."