Mission rejects £27m bid by Ashcroft firm
DIGITAL marketing group Mission today rejected a £27 million takeover bid from Brave Bison, a rival which is backed by former Tory Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft.
Brave Bison is offering 29p a share, a bit higher than the 22.7p at which the shares opened today.
Mission said in a statement that “following consultation with its financial and legal advisers, [it] unanimously rejected the Possible Offer which it believes to be opportunistic and significantly undervalues the Group and its prospects”. Mission shares are down 55% over the past year.
Brave Bison is run by the sons of former Carlton TV boss Michael Green. It was previously run by Ashley MacKenzie, the son of ex-Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie. Lord Ashcroft has a 20% stake.
Mission does marketing for clients including Porsche and Speedo. It said in March it had received “a number” of takeover bids without naming the bidders. Today, it said: “Brave Bison anticipate that Mission’s shareholders would enjoy more value from the combination based on a re-rating of the proposed combined group. There is no certainty of a re-rating.”
In the year to December Mission had revenues of £86.3 million and profits of £4.2 million. That contrasts with revenue of £20.9 million for Brave Bison and profit of £3.6 million.
Mission has been in talks with lenders to cut its debts.
Brave Bison is in talks with Mission shareholders in an effort to win support for its offer. It says a tie-up will create one of the UK’s largest independent digital marketing agencies on Aim, a combined group with sales of around £120 million and underlying earnings of about £14 million. The enlarged group would be headed up by brothers Oliver and Theo Green, executive chairman and chief growth officer of Brave Bison, who took over in 2020.Mission shares today rose 4% to 23.5p, still below the value of the offer.