Permian Investment adds to stake - FT1 Apr 2022 22:40
Permian Investment Partners raised its stake in S4 to 4.1 per cent this week, betting that concerns over the postponement would prove to be misplaced.
Alex Duran, Permian’s co-founder and portfolio manager, said that his firm has “immense confidence” in Sir Martin and S4’s chief growth officer Scott Spirit’s “operational and financial management and control of the business”.
He added that Permian had “closely studied” Sir Martin’s track-record at WPP, the world’s largest advertising group that he founded and led for over three decades.
Analysts have raised concerns about the lack of any clarification from S4 as to what has caused the delay to its results, with one saying the company had been “eerily and worryingly silent”.
Duran downplayed these worries. “I don’t think they can say much, so they haven’t,” he said. He added this was not Permian’s first investment in the advertising group, although its previous holding had fallen below the 3 per cent threshold that prompts disclosure.