UPDATE: M&C Saatchi nears two final hostile takeover attempts

(Alliance News) - M&C Saatchi PLC on Monday found itself one step closer to two hostile final takeover attempts, to which it has yet to respond.

Next Fifteen Communications Group PLC in the morning said its potential takeover offer cleared regulatory hurdles in the UK and Australia, with only approval from the US's Committee on Foreign Investment outstanding, which Next Fifteen expects to receive early in the fourth quarter.

Hours later, M&C Saatchi's largest shareholder AdvancedAdvT Ltd said it had cleared all regulatory clearances for its own takeover and reiterated that they will cast their share against Next Fifteen's offer. M&C Saatchi and its Chair Vin Murria together hold a 22% holding in M&C Saatchi.

AdvancedAdvT repeated its claim that Next Fifteen's offer undervalues M&C Saatchi.

Meanwhile, back in June, M&C Saatchi said both offers undervalue the company. However, M&C has warned that it may be prevented from delivering on its own plans as a stand-alone company.

Both takeover offers include a share-based acquisition element instead of an all-cash option that would keep the value of a possible transaction at a fixed tangible price.

Next Fifteen offered 0.1637 of a Next Fifteen share and 40 pence in cash for each M&C Saatchi share, while under AdvancedAdvT's offer, shareholders in M&C Saatchi would receive 2.043 new shares in AdvancedAdvT and 40p in cash, or receive 2.530 new AdvancedAdvT shares.

M&C Saatchi shares fell 2.2% to 154.20 pence each in London on Monday afternoon, while AdvancedAdvT shares traded 0.7% lower at 76.00p. Next Fifteen shares were 1.4% higher at 974.60p.

All companies have lost in share price value since AdvancedAdvT first eyed a share-based takeover attempt on January 7. Comparing Friday afternoon to the last pre-offer era day of January 6, AdvancedAdvT shares have dropped 22% to 76p from 98p, Next Fifteen was down 20% to 974.60p from 1,220p and M&C Saatchi fell 27% to 154.20p from 210p.

M&C Saatchi was founded in 1995 by ad executives Charles Saatchi and brother Maurice Saatchi, who also were behind renowned ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

By Tom Budszus; tombudszus@alliancenews.com

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