WPP May Consider Legal Action Over Tempus Bid

According to press reports this morning WPP may engage in a legal challenge to overturn the decision of the Takeover Panel with regards to the attempted withdrawal of its bid for Tempus.

WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell is to face the full panel this week in order to put WPP’s case for wanting to withdraw the offer. Although analysts are doubtful about his likely success it is thought that the crux of the WPP case rests on Tempus’s refusal to open its books to WPP.

Tempus has not made key trading updates from August, September and October available to WPP and thus it has been unable to gauge the impact losses at Tempus may have on WPP revenues. The other charge levelled at Tempus is that it used “generous exceptional charges” to account for job cuts and other retrenchments.

It is thought that if the Takeover Panel, in its entirety, does not make a decision based on the latest full information then WPP may attempt to claim that proper judicial process has not been met. WPP may then argue for a judicial review.

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