Incoming M&C Saatchi chair builds 0.1% stake in advertising group
Incoming M&C Saatchi chairman Zillah Byng-Thorne builds stake before joining advertising group board
- Zillah Byng-Thorne has bought 143,536 shares at an average price of 174 pence
- The former chairman of publishing house Future will join the board in mid-June
M&C Saatchi’s new non-executive chairman has built up a stake in the advertising company before joining the board this summer.
Zillah Byng-Thorne has bought 143,536 shares of common stock in the company at an average price of 174 pence per share, representing a 0.12 percent stake, M&C Saatchi told investors Monday.
Byng-Thorne, former chairman of Wallpaper and Homes & Garden publisher Future, succeeds Gareth Davis upon his retirement at the company’s annual general meeting in mid-June.
Incoming chairman Zillah Byng-Thorne has built up a 0.1% stake in M&C Saatchi
M&C rejected a takeover offer from AdvancedAdvT in May last year and removed Vin Murria, its largest shareholder, from its board the following month.
Shareholders of the advertising company also later voted against a takeover by marketing group Next Fifteen, despite initially supporting it.
At the time, M&C said its directors looked forward “to continuing the execution of M&C Saatchi’s strategy as an independent company.”
Last week, the company reported a 75 per cent drop in statutory pre-tax profit for 2022, which the company says was largely due to £10.8 million in ‘one-off defense costs’ related to the failed takeover bids.
However, revenues rose 8.7 per cent to £271.1 million as M&C landed several new accounts, including drinks giant Diageo, dating app Tinder and luxury house LVMH.
M&C Saatchi Shares were up 0.9 percent at 174p in early Monday trading.
The stock has recovered ground since the start of the year and is up about 15 percent, but remains about 4 percent lower than it was 12 months ago.
Saatchi was founded in 1995 by brothers Maurice and Charles Saatchi after the pair were ousted from the agency they started 25 years earlier, Saatchi & Saatchi.
Known for its close ties to the Conservative Party, its clients include some big corporate names ranging from retail giant Amazon to fashion brands Burberry and Hugo Boss and the Dutch flagship airline KLM.