Market research firm snubs WPP bid

Market research giant Taylor Nelson Sofres has snubbed a higher £996 million takeover proposal from global advertising group WPP.

The group said its board had "unanimously" rejected a revised 241.5p a share approach from WPP, which owns marketing and communications firms such as Ogilvy and Hill & Knowlton.

The rebuttal is the second this month, with TNS rejecting an unsolicited potential offer worth 230p a share from WPP less than two weeks ago for being "opportunistic".

TNS said the increased indicative bid was also not in shareholders' best interests.

Donald Brydon, chairman of TNS, said: "The board met today and had no hesitation in rejecting this revised proposal which substantially undervalues the company even on a standalone basis."

The cash-and-shares move is a 5% increase on the previous approach, but is below the 246p that TNS shares fetch on the market and a far cry from the stock's year high of 267.5p.

The unsolicited approach is the third from WPP - run by Sir Martin Sorrell - after the advertiser previously approached TNS about reversing its Kantar division into TNS and taking control of the enlarged group without paying a premium.

This proposal was also unanimously rejected as not being in shareholders' best interests.

Meanwhile TNS is in discussions with German information services group GfK over a merger that would create the world's second largest market information company with a value of around £1.5 billion.

The group believes this merger, which would be achieved through a share for share offer by TNS, would deliver "significant value" to TNS shareholders, accelerate revenue opportunities and create substantial cost savings, which some sources have put at around £78 million.

Read the rest of this article here:

Source: http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jeG4nRlO5-ujxUJVcfeRyGgdfeHw