2nd Apr 2008 18:12
M&C Saatchi PLC02 April 2008 M&C Saatchi PLC2 April 2008 M&C SAATCHI PLC ("M&C Saatchi" or the "Company") Acquisition of additional 5.5% of Walker Media Holdings Limited M&C Saatchi is pleased to announce that it has acquired an additional 5.5% ofthe issued A ordinary shares of Walker Media Holdings Limited ("Walker Media")which includes the 4.7% held (directly and indirectly) by Phil Georgiadis. Uponcompletion of this acquisition M&C Saatchi (together with its subsidiary M&CSaatchi Worldwide Limited) will hold 100% of the share capital of Walker Media. Walker Media is a media planning and buying company that Phil Georgiadis foundedwith Christine Walker and M&C Saatchi in 1997. Walker Media is the eighthlargest media agency in the UK, with annual billings in excess of £300 million. M&C Saatchi has made a cash payment of £3,854,249 and will issue 854,978additional ordinary shares of 1p each in the capital of the Company ("NewShares"), by way of consideration. The 854,978 New Shares are expected to be admitted to trading on AIM on 8 April2008, following which the Company's issued share capital will consist of60,516,110 ordinary shares of 1p each. Of this total, 700,000 ordinary sharesare held in treasury. M&C Saatchi's directors, having consulted with Numis Securities Limited,consider the terms of the transaction to be fair and reasonable insofar as M&CSaatchi's shareholders are concerned. Final payment for acquisition of 19.5% of Walker Media Holdings Limited On 3 July 2007 M&C Saatchi announced that it had acquired an additional 19.5% ofthe issued ordinary shares of Walker Media. This acquisition was subject to adeferred consideration payment following the determination of the consolidatedprofit for Walker Media for the financial year ended 31 December 2007. Followingthe finalisation of Walker Media's accounts for the financial year ended 31December 2007 M&C Saatchi will shortly make a final cash payment of £5,369,281,on top of the initial consideration of £8,783,252 and issued 1,888,236 ordinaryshares of 1p each in the capital of M&C Saatchi ("Ordinary Shares"). Comment by Walker Media Chairman Phil Georgiadis "Since we launched the business ten years ago Walker Media has proved to be anextremely potent proposition for an enviable list of blue chip advertisers. Thefuture is very exciting and I am passionately committed to the next stage in ourstory. We aim to grow, particularly, in the digital arena through Walker i andto further exploit international opportunities." For further information: M&C Saatchi PLC 020 7543 4500David Kershaw, Chief Executive Numis Securities Limited 020 7260 1000Lee AstonCharles Farquhar Tulchan Communications 020 7353 4200Celia Gordon Shute Notes Walker Media started trading in January 1998 as a 50:50 joint venture with M&CSaatchi. In July 2004 M&C Saatchi acquired a further 25% of Walker Media'sshares when the Company was launched on the London AIM market. In July 2007 M&CSaatchi acquired a further 19.5% of Walker Media's share capital. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
M&C Saatchi