I would not want to be out of this20 Sep 2018 16:48
seems a bot crazy to not be in this given sorrell is around
Current estimates project that Be Heard will bring in between £3 and £3.3 million of EBITDA this year. If S4 were to pay the same multiple for Be Heard as they did for MediaMonks, the final price would fall around £49.5 million. But S4 had to fight off several competitors in order to get MediaMonks. That caused the selling price to rise higher than it otherwise would have been. If there’s less competition for Be Heard, as their likely will be, then it could end up going for a multiple of 10x EBITDA. This would leave the final sales price closer to £30 million. With Be Heard’s market cap sitting at £11.19 million, now would be the perfect time for S4 to pounce since a £30 million price would equate to a 2.88p per share cost.
To add one more factor into the mix, Sorrell already has ties to Be Heard. One of their major stockholders, Nigel Wray, was the friend who recommended Sorrell establish S4 by taking over Derriston Capital, a company in which Wray was also invested. He’s also involved in Dowgate Capital, S4’s brokerage firm. With all of these connections, it isn’t a stretch to assume that Wray may also be pointing Sorrell in the direction of Be Heard since its business model seems to align so well with S4’s.
Nothing has been announced yet concerning this potential acquisition. But all of the pieces seem to be in place for S4 to acquire Be Heard as Sorrell seeks to re-establish himself as the reigning king of the advertising and PR world.