Advertisement
Advertisement

M&C Saatchi agrees to $390 million takeover by Next Fifteen

By:
Reuters
Updated: May 20, 2022, 09:22 UTC

LONDON (Reuters) - The independent directors of M&C Saatchi have agreed a deal to sell the British advertising company to consultancy Next Fifteen Communications, saying it offered a superior outcome to an alternative bid from its biggest shareholder.

The M&C Saatchi office in central London

LONDON (Reuters) -British advertising group M&C Saatchi has agreed a takeover by consultancy Next Fifteen Communications, which it said on Friday represented a better offer than one made by its biggest shareholder.

M&C, founded in 1995 by brothers Maurice and Charles Saatchi, has been recovering from a 2019 accounting scandal but last month reported a record annual profit helped by client wins and deepened relationships with the likes of Alphabet’s Google, Uber and TikTok.

It has been fighting a takeover attempt by its largest shareholder Vin Murria and this week rejected a deal worth 254 million pounds.

The Next Fifteen offer was worth 310 million pounds ($387 million), valuing its shares at 247.2 pence apiece, M&C said on Friday, adding that its senior staff fully backed the deal.

M&C and Next Fifteen said in a joint statement that their deal would help establish a much stronger competitor in digital marketing and consulting, bringing together blue-chip clients and an array of services and providing more firepower to invest.

“M&C Saatchi is synonymous with creativity and strategy, whereas Next Fifteen has built a reputation around its technology and data driven offering,” said Tim Dyson, CEO of Next Fifteen. “This makes for a great combination.”

Shares in M&C soared by as much as 38%, to levels not seen since 2019, but remained below the offer price.

The stock was trading at 221 pence by 0812 GMT, giving it a market value of around 270 million pounds. At their peak in 2018, M&C shares were worth 430 pence apiece.

Murria’s AdvancedadvT investment vehicle said it was considering its options, noting it owned 22.3% of M&C’s stock.

($1 = 0.8011 pounds)

(Reporting by Kate Holton, additional reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by William James, Jason Neely and Alexander Smith)

About the Author

Reuterscontributor

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products:

Did you find this article useful?

Advertisement