M&C Saatchi ousts Vin Murria from board following Next Fifteen’s £310m offer
Advertising giant M&C Saatchi ousted its biggest shareholder Vin Murria from its board this morning after moving forward with Next Fifteen’s £310m offer.
The move marks a dramatic turn of events for Murria, who launched a bid for the firm earlier this year.
M&C said that its independent directors had concluded that it was not appropriate for the tech entrepreneur to be proposed for re-election as a director at the upcoming annual shareholders meeting on June 30.
“The independent directors have resolved that Vin Murria be removed from the board with immediate effect and no resolution for Vin Murria’s re-election be presented at the AGM,” M&C stated.
Murria owns 12.5 per cent of the advertising giant directly and 9.8 per cent via her acquisition vehicle, AdvancedadvT.
However, M&C rejected AdvancedadvT’s £245m offer last month, asserting that it had “undervalued” the company and its overall growth potential.
The approach notably sat against a backdrop of ‘Put Up or Shut Up’ deadlines given to AdvancedadvT, attempting to drive up the offer price.
Under the deal agreed with consultancy Next Fifteen, shareholders will be entitled to 40p in cash and 0.1637 of a New Next Fifteen share for each M&C share. M&C chairman Gareth Davis called it a “far superior” offer.
Despite the blow to Murria, AdvancedAdvT continues to assert that the Next Fifteen’s offer does “not fairly reflect the potential to unlock significant synergies” for M&C shareholders.
The firm highlighted that in the nine business days since the offer announcement, the price of a Next Fifteen’s share has fallen by 13.1 per cent, from 1,266 pence to 1,100 pence at the close of business on 1 June 2022.
As at 1 June 2022, NFC’s offer value had therefore declined to 220.1 pence per M&C Saatchi Share.
AdvancedAdvT will not raise its offer, but said it has not dropped out of the race and continue to consider options.