Bollore takes his stake in Aegis above 21%

by Staff, Brand Republic 01-Nov-05, 11:00

LONDON - Vincent Bollore, the French financier and Havas chairman, has taken his stake in media buying and research group Aegis to 21.05% as he continues to buy up small parcels of stock on an almost daily basis.

Yesterday, Bollore raised his take from 20.96%, having taken it to 20.8% last week, as WPP Group and Hellman & Friedman were given until November 25 to make an offer for Aegis by the Takeover Panel.

The panel made the ruling following a request by Aegis for a deadline to be drawn up for the long-winded process. Robert Lerwill, chief executive of Aegis, has also said in the press that he wants WPP to make a decision "sooner and not later".

Elsewhere, Maurice Levy, Publicis Groupe chief executive, has said that a trade buyer will struggle to trump the French advertising group's valuation of Aegis.

In an interview with The Guardian, Levy said a non-trade buyer could not match the 140p-a-share price tag that Publicis had attached to Aegis.

WPP has made no indication as to how much it is willing to pay to win Aegis. If it does buy the company, the UK media buyer will likely be broken up, with Sir Martin Sorrell's firm taking control of market research firm Synovate and the rest going to Hellman & Friedman.

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