Bollore raises stake in Aegis following revelation of 'more than one' potential bidder

by Staff, Brand Republic 04-Oct-05, 11:35

LONDON - Vincent Bollore has bought yet more shares in UK media group Aegis, upping his stake to 12.63% and adding further intrigue to the mystery about the existence of a second bidder, which emerged this morning.

In a statement from Bollore's firm, Financiere Du Loch said it bought a further 14.1m Aegis shares on Monday for 139p a share. Bollore, who is chairman of French ad group Havas, was already the biggest shareholder in Aegis before the purchase.

However, he has previously stated that he sees his investment in Aegis as separate from Havas, and said that it is for the short-term only.

Earlier this morning, Aegis revealed that it had met with "more than one potential buyer for the company. The identity of one of the bidders has already been revealed as Publicis Groupe, but the second party has not been named.

In a statement to the London Stock Exchange this morning, the company said: "Aegis announces that in recent days its representatives and advisers have met with more than one potential offeror to share non-public information on the company."

It added that there was no certainty it would receive an offer from any bidder.

A bidding war for Aegis had been expected to send its share price skyrocketing, but the other big players such as WPP Group and Omnicom have not shown any public interest in acquiring the company.

Shares in the company were trading up by 5p this morning, at 143.75p.

Aegis owns the media planning networks Carat and Vizeum, along with Isobar, the digital network.

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