Seeing call activity 4K April 19 calls trade at the ask
as a reminder Maurice Levy from Publicis said that 10 days ago : "Publicis' Levy says Interpublic is key to future sector consolidation"
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Publicis' Levy says Interpublic is key to future sector consolidation
Future consolidation in the advertising and PR space will centre around Interpublic [NYSE:IPG], Maurice Levy, the CEO of French competitor Publicis [EPA:PUB] told this news service in an exclusive interview.
“The real question is what will happen around Interpublic, to the extent that there is an activist shareholder, it’s the only place where something could happen,” Levy said yesterday on the sidelines of an M&A conference in Paris.
“But I don’t know if the management, if the board or the shareholders want to make a move or not,” he added.
Activist shareholder Elliot Management has been pushing for a sale of Interpublic group, according to press reports.
Asked if Publicis could make a move for Interpublic, Levy said, “I’ve just done a USD 3.7bn deal....so talking about [other deals] when this one has not closed seems very irresponsible.”
The French advertiser announced this week an acquisition of US-based digital marketing company Sapient [NASDAQ:SAPE]. Off the back of the deal, Moody’s changed its outlook on Publicis’ Baa2 rating to stable from positive, citing the increase of its net debt/EBITDAR ratio to 3x from 1.5x.
The only companies in the sector larger than Interpublic are Publicis, Dentsu [TYO:4324], Omnicom [NYSE:OMC] and WPP [LON:WPP]. The only remaining medium-sized advertising player, Havas [EPA:HA], is subject to an exchange offer from its majority shareholder Bolloré [EPA:BOL].
Levy said Bolloré’s offer to increase his stake to over 50% from 36.22% was a positive move.
“I see it as good for the company and for its employees."
But he added that he never saw Havas as a target and never considered that Bollore would sell the company.