Influential investor backs Sorrell’s new venture

Martin Sorrell has won financial backing from Crispin Odey, an influential London investor, for his new venture after leaving the world’s largest advertising firm.

“People have made a lot of money with Martin and he doesn’t look like a man who wants to rest,” Odey, founder of hedge fund firm Odey Asset Management, said in a phone interview. “With Martin, you have someone who knows the whole market very well.”

The support from one of Britain’s best-known fund managers is a vote of confidence in Sorrell, who was ousted as CEO from WPP in April after an investigation into alleged personal misconduct.

Sorrell, 73, wants to use acquisitions to build a marketing services business through his company S4 Capital. He has a list of targets and a first deal could be announced in the coming weeks, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Odey said he is betting on Sorrell to make an acquisition soon. “He’s got something lined up,” Odey said.

“The cleverest thing Martin always did was he kept on buying businesses every year. He kept on finding out what the new technology guys are doing.”

The attempt at a fresh start after WPP has been aided by backers in the City of London, who helped him turn the former manufacturer of wire shopping baskets into a global advertising empire over three decades.

Rupert Faure Walker, who advised WPP on its purchases of creative agencies J Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather, is one of S4’s nonexecutive directors. S4 is being advised by Dowgate Capital Stockbrokers.

S4 said in May it had raised £51m, with Sorrell putting in £40m of his own money, and had the support of institutional investors to raise another £150m of equity.

Sorrell’s brokers told investors on Friday they had completed the fundraising, said one person familiar with the matter. The Mail on Sunday reported that S4 had raised the £150m it was seeking: £100m from equity funding and £50m from debt financing.