Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP on Thursday launched a third attempt to persuade shareholders of Taylor Nelson Sofres to accept WPP’s approach rather than its agreed nil-premium merger with German research group GfK, but was rejected by the UK market research group. WPP said it would offer a deal worth 261p to TNS shareholders if the TNS board agreed to recommend the bid. The indicative approach is made up of 173p in cash and 0.1889 of a WPP share, compared with 164p in cash from its previous bid and valuing TNS’s equity at £1.08bn. WPP wants to merge TNS with its Kantar market research subsidiary. Lex notes that WPP’s premium is already generous, at more than 50% to the pre-bid price, but Sir Martin may have to raise his offer to get what he wants. TNS shares jumped 8% to 243p, well below the value of the approach. WPP shares closed up 3.5p at 464p.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 5:22 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A, People. Tagged with GfK, TNS, WPP. Edit this entry.