Porta Communications snapping up media agency Redleaf Polhill
PORTA Communications yesterday bought a majority stake in smaller rival agency Redleaf Polhill as part of its effort to expand further.
Aim-listed Porta, which this week announced a new office in Doha, said it will pay £1.8m for a 51 per cent holding in Redleaf, with an option to buy the rest over the next three years.
Emma Kane, who founded Redleaf in 2000, will stay on board and the firm’s brand name will stay in use. “Access to Porta’s ever increasing international network was particularly attractive as well as being a member of the same group of companies that comprises so many agencies we admire,” she said in a statement yesterday.
Redleaf made an operating profit of £610,000 in the year to November, though a loan writedown pushed the firm into an after-tax loss of £290,000.
Porta has snapped up several smaller companies in recent years including Thirteen Communications, Cauldron Consulting and Crazy Horse Brand Response.