Takeover tattle: Vin Murria’s AdvancedAdvT snubs M&C Saatchi’s calls for US regulatory approval
Vin Murria’s AdvancedAdvT pushes back against M&C Saatchi’s suggestions to get US regulatory clearance as the hostile takeover talks heat up.
It comes after the advertising giant urged the investment vehicle to seek approval from the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) after its rival bidder Next Fifteen announced that it had pushed forward with its own filing.
The move represented push back against the hostile suitor, which is backed by tech entrepreneur Murria.
However, in an announcement this morning, the investment vehicle seemed to defy M&C’s suggestion and said: “ADV reiterates that it has now received all mandatory regulatory clearances to proceed with its Final Offer.
ADV confirms that the appropriate filings for these clearances were submitted prior to the publication of M&C Saatchi’s defence circular which was published 28 June 2022.”
It added that it had taken advice about what regulatory clearance was needed and noted: “M&C Saatchi in both its defence circular and yesterday’s announcement, any CFIUS filing is voluntary.”
The London-listed firm confirmed yesterday that it was pushing forward with an all share offer of 209.4p per share as at 13 June for the advertising titan.
Murria said this was “notably higher” in the publication of final offer document than Next Fifteen’s of 198.3p per share one (as at 13 June).
There is no date set for the M&C shareholder vote as it depends on the outcome of the regulatory filings for the firms.