WPP this morning made clear its intentions regarding Tempus Group, confirming that an offer of 555p-a-share had been made (see WPP Poised To Make Counter Bid For Tempus). This values Tempus at £440 million, an increase on the 541p-a-share offer made by Havas in July (see Tempus Shares Soar On Havas Takeover Reports) which put the company’s value at around £425 million. The new offer has led the Tempus board to withdraw their recommendation of the Havas offer and they urged shareholders not to make any decision until further talks with both companies had been undertaken.
Tomorrow Havas will release a Q1 trading update tomorrow and it is widely thought that this announcement will be followed by a counter-bid for Tempus.
The WPP bid represents a 54% increase on the price of Tempus shares at the time of the Havas offer, when they closed at 360½p. In their statement, WPP reiterated its plans to combine CIA, the media buying arm of Tempus, with its own buying operation, The Media Edge creating the world’s fourth largest media buying brand (see The Media Agency Landscape, Consolidation And Globalisation).
Tempus shares, which opened at 582½p, had fallen slightly to 580p at 11.30am.
WPP shares opened at 663p and had risen to 665½ by 11.30am.
