Sir Martin Sorrell gets £100m funding from City investors for new venture S4 Capital
Adman Sir Martin Sorrell has raised around £100m for his new marketing venture S4 Capital, City A.M. understands.
Sorrell has been scoping out City investors to back the advertising enterprise, which is looking to capitalise on opportunities in tech, data and content marketing.
A spokesperson for Sorrell declined to comment.
The former WPP boss returned to the market in May weeks after dramatically resigning from the company he founded and led for over 30 years.
When he first announced his return, Sorrell said S4 Capital had completed a £51m equity fund raising and had received "substantial non-binding letters of support" from a number of institutional investors who had agreed in principle to provide a total of £150m to support the new venture.
Sorrell resigned as boss of WPP in April after it was revealed that the board was investigating him over allegations about his "personal misconduct".
The findings of the investigation were never publicly revealed, but reports in the weeks that followed claimed to unveil the reason for Sorrell's sudden departure.
The Wall Street Journal claimed WPP's investigation into its chief executive looked at whether Sorrell had used company funds to pay for a prostitute, an accusation Sorrell "strenuously denies".
A lengthy article in the Financial Times accused Sorrell of bullying junior employees of the company, but speaking at Cannes, the ad guru simply said: "If it is a fault to demand or expect superior performance or for things to go well, mea culpa."