Sorrell’s 250-day global buying splurge

He’s striking an incredible one deal every week

SIR Martin Sorrell completed his 33rd deal of the year yesterday – the latest in an extraordinary buying spree that has seen him expand his sprawling advertising empire by striking an average of one agreement a week.

The marketing guru’s group WPP ploughed £3.8m into New York-based podcast firm Gimlet Media, whose clients include Google owner Alphabet, Ford, Pepsi, eBay, bankers Goldman Sachs and Microsoft.

WPP has now bought or invested in 33 companies in the first 250 days of this year as Sorrell seeks to increase his exposure to developing nations and the fast-growing digital market.

The deals have spanned the world – covering countries such as China, India, Russia, Kenya, UAE and Brazil as well as the US, UK, Ireland, France and Spain.

David Buik, an analyst at Panmure Gordon stockbrokers in the City, said the spree underlined Sorrell’s ‘voracious appetite’ for acquisitions.

WPP has taken control of more than 300 companies this decade and invested in many more – but the deal-making has triggered claims that Sorrell is relying on takeovers for growth.

There are also concerns about WPP’s complex structure, with pressure mounting on the board to identify a successor capable of running the company when 72-year-old Sorrell finally stands down.

A City fund manager warned WPP was in danger of becoming ‘a sprawling mess’ under Sorrell, who has been chief executive since 1986 and was paid £48.1m last year.

And a corporate governance boss at one of WPP’s top investors said: ‘Succession planning is the key issue. Although Sir Martin shows no signs of slowing down at all, he can’t last forever.

‘The company has grown very substantially through acquisitions and it is a very complicated beast now, a beast that probably only works if you have an individual who operates in the way Martin does. So there is not only a succession question but also a really big structural question that the board needs to be thinking about.’

Sorrell lives in a £5m property in London with his second wife Cristiana Falcone, 43, (pictured) who gave birth to a girl last year.

He was previously married to Sandra Finestone, the mother of his three sons. WPP has more than 205,000 staff in over 3,000 offices in 112 countries and is targeting Cuba, Iran and North Africa. Faster-growing markets and ‘new media’ are expected to make up 40pc to 45pc of revenues over the next three to four years.

But shares fell nearly 11pc in just one day last month after Sorrell was forced to cut his forecasts for revenue growth for a second time this year. The stock is down 23pc in 2017, reducing the value of Sorrell’s shares by £88m to around £300m.

Steve Clayton, a fund manager at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that while rivals such as Omnicom and Publicis were also struggling amid weak global growth, there have long been questions about Sorrell’s control of WPP.

‘Sir Martin has extracted levels of remuneration that are more akin to the rewards of an owner than an executive in recent years. Fine when performance is truly exceptional, but glaringly inappropriate when it is not,’ he said.

‘This feels like a fault line, which could hasten change in the boardroom.’ Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the spree left WPP looking like an investment trust of media companies.

‘It is that perspective which could lead to calls for a break-up – if WPP’s current growth woes prove to be more than a nearterm stumble or the firm fails to convince that Sir Martin’s successor can manage the company as effectively as he has,’ he said.