WPP nabs £2.5bn from sale of stake in Kantar
IT might be slightly sinister, but customer data is big business.
Details about shoppers’ spending habits, where they go, what they do for a living and how many children they have are in huge demand from companies looking for an advantage over rivals.
So private equity firm Bain Capital may just have bagged a bargain by snapping up a 60pc stake in market research firm Kantar, an underperforming arm of advertising company WPP.
The tie-up will make WPP £2.5bn from a deal that values the market researcher at £3.2bn.
WPP, which launched Kantar in 1992, will retain a 40pc stake and has pledged to hand £1bn from the sale to shareholders – though it has yet to say how it will do this, with options including a special dividend or a buyback.
Other private equity firms, such as CVC, EQT and Permira, had also been linked to the sale.
It is one of the first major overhauls of the advertising giant since former boss Sir Martin Sorrell left abruptly in a haze of controversy last April. Replacement Mark Read said the company should focus on ‘data-driven marketing rather than data ownership’, in the first push to streamline the sprawling FTSE 100-listed company. Shares ticked 0.6pc higher, or 6.2p, to 961.4p.
An auction of Hull- focused broadband provider KCOM wrapped up last night, with the Takeover Panel saying MEIF 6 Fibre came in with the biggest offer. Its 120.3p per share bid, which values the company at £627m, was backed by KCOM’s board after markets closed for the weekend.
A meeting to give shareholders a vote on the proposal will be organised ‘as soon as reasonably practicable,’ the board said. KCOM’s shares yesterday closed down 0.2pc, or 0.2p, at 115.2p.
Investors declined tucking into another portion of shares in fellow Footsie group, the delivery giant Just Eat. A deal to expand into the office catering market by buying City Pantry for £16m sent shares 2.4pc lower, down 14.8p, to 612p.
The London and Manchesterbased business connects restaurants with companies that want to serve food to their staff or clients.
The takeaway takeover comes amid rumours Amazon could be eyeing up a stake in Just Eat if its attempt to invest in Deliveroo runs into more trouble with competition regulators, who have put a temporary block on the tie-up due to fears it could lead to higher prices for customers.
Liberum brokers said it could be possible for Amazon to buy a stake in Just Eat – or take over the whole company.
Blue- chip pharmaceuticals
groups Astrazeneca and Glaxosmithkline fell for the second trading day after the US government scrapped a key plan – and campaign promise of freewheeling President Trump - to lower the price of prescription medicines.
US health secretary Alex Azar said the government ditched the proposal because it would have raised costs for customers of Medicare, the US’s national health insurance plan.
Although drug firms’ profits would have suffered under the plan, it is feared that the collapse of the proposals could pave the way for even tougher rules to be introduced instead. Astra fell 0.9pc, or 58p, to 6324p, while Glaxo lost 0.5pc, or 8.6p, to 1623.8p.
The FTSE 100 ended a quiet week without a flourish, shedding 0.05pc, or 3.85 points, to close down virtually flat at 7505.97.
But the mid- cap FTSE 250 managed a more upbeat result, rising 0.56pc, or 108.67 points, to 19,551.83.