Surge in TNS shareholders accepting WPP offer

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 30-Sep-08, 09:05

LONDON - The number of TNS shareholders who have accepted WPP's £1.1bn takeover offer has climbed from 34% on Friday to 43% early yesterday afternoon.

WPP revealed in a market announcement last night that it had received acceptances representing almost 179m TNS shares, or 42.87% of the total, as of 2.30pm yesterday.

Led by chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP extended last Friday's deadline by one week after receiving acceptances from only 33.8% of TNS shareholders.

This number had trebled from 11% on September 12 after further deterioration in the economic outlook.

The remaining TNS shareholders have until 3pm this Friday October 3 to accept WPP's offer, which consists of 173p in cash and 0.1889 of a new WPP share. Based on WPP's closing share price yesterday of 439.25p, this values TNS at £1.12bn.

This offer represents a 50% premium over TNS's closing share price of 171p on April 28, the last business day before the announcement by TNS of a potential merger with GfK.

TNS has not yet issued a response to WPP's latest statement, but on Friday urged its shareholders to reject the deal, as the board believes the offer undervalues the company and fails to take into account factors such as the business's current performance, its market-leading position, its growth strategy and investment in a global and digital offering.