By Lars Mucklejohn
Mission Group is evaluating a raised takeover proposal by rival digital marketing agency Brave Bison after rejecting its initial proposal last month, with a preliminary view that the new bid is also inadequate.
The London-listed firm said Brave Bison – which owns Social Chain, the Stephen Bartlett-founded digital marketing agency – submitted a raised bid on 25 May, priced at around 35.1p per Mission share and valuing the company at £32.3m.
The proposal would offer a partial cash alternative of up to 50 per cent of the offer price.
Its new proposal is up from a price of 29p per share and £29m valuation in Brave Bison’s initial approach at the end of April, which Mission rejected. Mission said the first proposal was “opportunistic and significantly undervalues the group and its prospects”.
Brave Bison’s latest bid marks a 55 per cent premium to Mission’s share price immediately before the offer period and a 63 per cent premium to its average price over the previous 60 days.
The revised proposal would result in Mission shareholders holding around 50 per cent of the combined business.
Mission said on Tuesday that it would announce a decision on the bid “in due course” but was of the “preliminary view” that it “does not reflect Mission’s contribution to the proposed combined group”.
Under UK takeover rules, Brave Bison has until 5pm on 9 June to make a firm offer or walk away
Mission’s share price has struggled in recent years, although it has recovered from a drop-off last October after announcing an operational review to cut costs in response to clients reducing ad spend. Its recent results showed losses widened to £10.7m.
In February 2023, Brave Bison inked a deal to buy Social Chain, the social media advertising and influencer marketing company founded by podcaster Steven Bartlett. Since 2020, Brave Bison has acquired five companies.
Brave Bison’s chief executive Oliver Green has said that a tie-up with Mission “has the potential to deliver compelling value for both company’s shareholders, clients and employees”.
