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(Alliance News) - AdvancedAdvt Ltd on Friday reported a significantly widened loss after its failed attempt to acquire advertising agency M&C Saatchi PLC, but it retained significant cash for further acquisitions.
The London-based acquisition vehicle had GBP104.2 million in cash as at June 30 and had net assets of GBP121.6 million at the same date. Its net asset value per share was 91.3 pence.
In the financial year that ended June 30, pretax loss widened to GBP7.7 million from GBP2.6 million the year before, as administrative expenses increased to GBP3.3 million from GBP2.6 million, while it recorded other losses of GBP4.8 million, up from none the year before.
Much of these losses came from AdvancedAdvT's attempt to acquire M&C Saatchi.
AdvancedAdvT and its chair, Vin Murria, together held an almost 23% stake in M&C Saatchi, and Murria had been a M&C Saatchi board member, but they couldn't convince other M&C Saatchi shareholders to support the cash-and-shares takeover offer. The final offer lapsed at the end of September.
As a significant shareholder in M&C, AdvancedAdvT "will continue to assess all potential value creation opportunities for M&C."
No dividends will be paid until after an acquisition, it said.
The company noted that "the significant macroeconomic uncertainty and disruption across a number of industries is likely to result in accelerated structural change in certain sectors which will result in the emergence of a number of investment opportunities."
Chair Murria said: "We believe that our strong cash position, the current economic downturn combined with our disciplined and patient approach, will put us in a prime position to execute on our strategy."
Shares in AdvancedAdvt were untraded on Friday but closed at 69.40 pence each on Thursday.
By Chris Dorrell; chrisdorrell@alliancenews.com
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