By Leah Montebello
The ongoing battle for M&C Saatchi continued to heat up today, with Vin Murria’s investment vehicle continuing to snub Next Fifteen’s bid, despite it passing the necessary regulatory hurdles in the UK and Australia.
In an update posted this afternoon, Murria’s AdvancedAdvt said it had also received all the mandatory regulatory clearances to proceed with an all share offer of 209.4p per share for the advertising titan.
The British businesswoman said in a statement that the final offer was “notably higher” than Next Fifteen’s of 198.3p per share and explained that while the firm was a “credible buyer,” she believed her proposition for the company was far superior.
This may be deemed problematic for Next Fifteen seeing as Murria and her vehicle hold a hefty 22.3 per cent stake in M&C: potentially providing a roadblock.
However, following Murria’s note, M&C posted its own shareholder update this evening stating that AdvancedAdvt is yet to seek approval from across the pond with the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Next Fifteen confirmed this morning that it had already submitted a filing to the CFIUS.
The advertising agency giant added that it was in the “best interests” of M&C shareholders for Murria’s vehicle to “remove any uncertainty with respect to the consequences of foregoing appropriate regulatory filings in the United States, as Next 15 has done”.
M&C previously snubbed both Next Fifteen and AdvancedAdvt offers back in June stating that each of them undervalued the company and its potential for growth. This has been largely influenced by respective share price fluctuations, which could still send the value of Next Fifteen’s offer up further.
There is no date set for the M&C shareholder vote as it depends on the outcome of the regulatory filings for the firms.
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