French media and telecoms giant VivendiUniversal is pulling out of one of largest East Europe's telecoms companies.

Vvendi said it was selling its 49% stake in Poland's Elektrim Telekomunikacja to investors led by banking giant Citigroup.

The move was expected by analysts, who have welcomed Vivendi's strategy of selling out non-core businesses acquired in the past few years.

"This is a good sign," said Grzegorz Litynski, analyst at bank Zakhodni in Warsaw.

It is expected that Vivendi will get about 600m euros (�373m; $530m) for the stake, slightly more than a third of the price it paid.

Another 49% of Elektrim Telekomunikacja is owned by bankrupt Polish holding company Elektrim, which has said it is unable to sell the stake because of a court battle with Deutsche Telekom.

The German firm alleges Elektrim illegally took control of a mobile phone company in which they are both shareholders.