S4 Cap. Regulatory News (SFOR)

21 June 2019

S4 Capital plc ("S4Capital" or "the Company")

MediaMonks deal with BizTech to expand capabilities and geographic coverage

S4Capital plc (SFOR.L), the new age, new era digital advertising and marketing services company, announces that its global content arm MediaMonks today conditionally agreed a merger with BizTech, a leading marketing transformation and customer experience company based in Melbourne, Australia. The proposed merger signifies an investment in further strengthening MediaMonks' marketing cloud expertise and an important strategic step towards delivering a faster, better and cheaper offer for clients worldwide. BizTech reports revenues of approximately A$15 million and employs 90+ people in five locations spanning the globe. It is headquartered in Melbourne and operates in Sydney, Toronto, Moscow and Astana. Founded in 2008, BizTech has been consistently awarded the highest honours in APAC for its work with Adobe across Adobe Experience Cloud. Teaming up with BizTech - a Gold partner in Adobe's Solution Partner Programme - will enable MediaMonks and MightyHive to expand their existing relationship with one of the major software companies in the digital marketing ecosystem. A video showcasing work by BizTech can be viewed on MediaMonks' YouTube channel.The merger will establish a footprint for MediaMonks particularly in Australia and Canada, marking another milestone in the company's global expansion. S4Capital already operates in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand through MightyHive, but S4Capital will now gain a fully integrated content and programmatic operation in Australia and Canada on which to build, as well as a global centre of expertise in customer experience and Adobe capabilities.

The merger will be funded from the Company's cash resources and the consideration will be payable in cash and ordinary shares of S4 Capital on a 50/50 basis, with lock-up restrictions. The merger is subject to completion of the ongoing audit and documentation process and merger control. Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman of S4Capital said: "We are delighted with the proposed deal which will bring Michael, Tim, and the entire BizTech team to the S4Capital family. Their highly specialised Adobe expertise and close-knit client relationships make BizTech the perfect partner to accelerate our business in Australia and beyond."Michael Patishman, CEO of BizTech commented: "We are thrilled to be asked to partner with S4Capital and launch MediaMonks in new territories in Australia, which offers exciting opportunities for our people and a broader service offering for our clients."Tim Goodman, CTO and Founder of BizTech added: "It gives us great pleasure to partner with S4Capital and continue the journey we started 11 years ago. We look forward to working with Victor and the team to expand our offering globally" 

Victor Knaap, Main Monk and CEO of MediaMonks said: "Bringing BizTech on board will represent many things for MediaMonks. We will be effectively marrying engineering, design, and content for a new era of creativity. But we're not just broadening our client offer, we're growing our network that will span from Mexico to Melbourne and welcome a brand new super crew of Adobe experts." 

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About BiztechBizTech is a highly-specialised systems integrator. Using a tried and tested formula, BizTech works closely together with its clients, enabling it to deliver on its customers' expectations. As a longstanding ANZ Digital Marketing Adobe Partner, it's one of few organisations globally to ever achieve the Gold Status and AEM Specialization, Adobe Campaign Specialization and Analytics Specialization as well as Adobe Certified Training Partner status.BizTech employs close to 100 employees across offices in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Its clients include banks, telecommunications, universities, government, retail and media companies.About MediaMonksMediaMonks is a global creative production company that partners with clients across industries and markets to craft amazing work for leading businesses and brands. Its integrated production capabilities span the entire creative spectrum, covering anything you could possibly want from a production partner, and probably more.From creative campaigns and content to bespoke development and design, MediaMonks works above the line and below the fold at the intersection of creativity and technology. Operating across teams, time zones, and technologies with an incredible in-house team of 950+ Monks. Its work is recognized by advertising and craft awards around the world, producing 128 Cannes Lions and 220+ FWAs to date.Founded in 2001 and rooted in digital, you can find MediaMonks anywhere on the Web as well as in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Dubai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Singapore, and Shanghai.In July 2018, MediaMonks joined forces with S4Capital to build out the production platform of the future. Under the direction of Sir Martin Sorrell, MediaMonks is increasing its firepower on all fronts, adding new Monks, monasteries, and services such as data analytics and digital media buying.About S4CapitalS4Capital plc (SFOR.L) is a new age/new era digital advertising and marketing services company established by Sir Martin Sorrell in May 2018.Its strategy is to build a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multi-national, regional, local clients and millennial-driven influencer brands. This will be achieved initially by integrating leading businesses in three areas: first-party data, digital content, digital media planning and buying, along with an emphasis on "faster, better, cheaper" executions in an always-on consumer-led environment, with a unitary structure.Digital is by far the fastest-growing segment of the advertising market. S4Capital estimates that in 2017 digital accounted for approximately 40 per cent. or $200 billion of total global advertising spend of $500 billion (excluding about $400 billion of trade support, the primary target of the Amazon advertising platform), and projects that by 2022 this share will grow to approximately 55 per cent.S4Capital integrated with MediaMonks, the leading, AdAge A-listed creative digital content production company, led by Victor Knaap and Wesley ter Haar, in July 2018, and with MightyHive, the market-leading programmatic solutions provider for future thinking marketers and agencies, led by Peter Kim and Christopher S. Martin, in December 2018.Victor, Wesley, Pete, Christopher and Peter Rademaker (formerly Chief Financial Officer of MediaMonks, now Chief Financial Officer of S4Capital), all joined the S4Capital Board as Directors. The S4Capital Board also includes Scott Spirit, Elizabeth Buchanan, Rupert Faure Walker, Daniel Pinto, Sue Prevezer and Paul Roy.The company has a market capitalization of approximately £600 million ($750 million) and approximately 1,400 people in 20 countries, across the Americas, Europe, the Middle-East and Africa and Asia-Pacific.Sir Martin was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million "shell" company in 1985 into the world's largest advertising and marketing services company with a market capitalization of over £16 billion on the day he left. Prior to that he was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company plc for 9 years.