S4 CAPITAL PLC (Alliance News) - Shares in S4 Capital PLC advanced on Friday after The Wall Street reported the company had turned down a bid approach.
Shares in S4 Capital rose 8.6% to 43.69 pence each in London. They had earlier hit an intra-day high of 55.29p, a 37% increase.
The WSJ said S4 Capital, the London-based digital advertising, marketing and technology services, rejected a bid valuing the company at around USD700 million last year from Stagwell, another agency.
That would translate to around GBP555 million at current exchange rates, more than double S4 Capital's current market value of around GBP266 million.
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/he-was-the-ad-industrys-hunter-now-hes-the-prey-65a12b99?mod=business_lead_pos2
S4 Capital is run by Martin Sorrell, the former boss of WPP PLC.
In 2023, the company issued several profit warnings hit by a downturn in spending by clients, particularly in the technology sector.
"After four years of very strong growth, 2023 was a difficult year impacted by volatile macro conditions and, consequently, cautious spending from clients, particularly those in the technology sector and from smaller project-based assignments," Executive Chair Martin Sorrell said when reporting fourth quarter results in January.
Sorrell said he is not expecting to see a "macro-economic improvement" this year.
"Client caution on marketing spend will likely persist, although not at last year's level given interest rates are likely to fall over time," he added.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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