(Alliance News) - AdvancedAdvT Ltd on Thursday urged shareholders in M&C Saatchi PLC to accept the final offer made in an acquisition attempt as it issued an update on acceptance levels.
ADV is an acquisition vehicle. The company raised GBP130 million through a fundraising in March 2021 to seek mid-cap acquisition opportunities in the software sector. M&C Saatchi is a London-based communications agency.
ADV said it has received 15.6 million valid acceptances of the final offer, representing about 13% of the issued share capital of M&C Saatchi.
ADV is already M&C's largest shareholder and is chaired by Vin Murria, a former member of M&C Saatchi's board. Along with the M&C Saatchi shares that ADV already holds, ADV has acquired or agreed to acquire 27.6 million shares, or about 23% of M&C Saatchi shares.
The remaining shares have to decide on the offer no later than September 30.
M&C Saatchi has been the object of a takeover battle between AdvancedAdvT and AIM-listed Next Fifteen Communications Group PLC dating back to May.
M&C Saatchi initially favoured Next Fifteen but withdrew its support for the takeover when shares in Next Fifteen plummeted. Next Fifteen shares have fallen by about 30% since announcing the acquisition attempt in May. M&C Saatchi did not transfer its recommendation to ADV.
Next Fifteen offered 0.1637 of a Next Fifteen share and 40 pence in cash for each M&C Saatchi share. Under ADV's offer, shareholders in M&C Saatchi would receive 2.043 new shares in ADV and 40p in cash, or receive 2.530 new ADV shares. Next Fifteen's acquisition deal valued M&C Saatchi at about GBP310.1 million. ADV's proposal had valued M&C lower, at GBP253.6 million.
On Tuesday M&C Saatchi board members unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the ADV offer, which the company described as "derisory." The company said that the original offer price was too low and failed to reflect its growth and opportunities. It also pointed out that "ADV share price is currently 29.1% below its share price immediately prior to its suspension on January 7."
Shares in ADV were trading 3.5% higher at 71.90 pence. M&C Saatchi shares were trading 0.8% lower at 152.20 pence each.
By Chris Dorrell; chrisdorrell@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
M&C Saatchi (SAA)
Advancedadvt (ADVT)