All eyes on Havas chair Vincent Bolloré
WILL he or won’t he? That is the question that markets will be asking this morning of Vincent Bolloré, the chairman of French marketing group Havas, who is also the biggest shareholder in Aegis.
Because if Ipsos Mori’s unsolicited offer for Aegis’ market research arm Synovate is eventually accepted, it makes it more likely that Bolloré will launch a long-touted takeover bid for the remainder of the group.
For Ipsos, whose offer is said to value Synovate at £500m, this deal makes sense. Increasingly, clients are asking market research companies to perform multi-country surveys, an area where Synovate does well.
Last year, Synovate grew its multi-country survey sales by 26 per cent. Its strength in emerging markets like Latin America and China, the result of a series of bolt-on acquisitions in recent years, is especially attractive.
Synovate, which is run almost entirely separately from Aegis Media, would be easy to pick apart and sell off. But it accounts for 41 per cent of revenues, leaving the parent much smaller.
That’s where Bolloré comes in. In recent months, he has talked down his chances of buying the rest of Aegis, suggesting he could even sell his stake.
But he won’t have failed to notice that the 9.1 per cent organic growth achieved by Aegis in the first quarter of 2011 managed to best most of the sector.
The Aegis management has always had an uneasy relationship with their most dissident and largest shareholder, fearing that his presence could prove a distraction (thankfully, it hasn’t). But shares in the firm are likely to rally today as one of the City’s oldest takeover rumours gains fresh impetus.
Over to you Mr Bolloré.