BackMartin Sorrell’s departure may herald WPP’s breakup
After CEO Martin Sorrell's resignation, investment banks are pitching for asset sales or a dramatic dissolution of WPP Plc
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London: Martin Sorrell’s abrupt exit from WPP Plc leaves the advertising empire in search of a new chief executive officer for the first time and vulnerable to a breakup, as the sprawling network of agencies faces its biggest challenges since the global financial crisis.
Sorrell’s departure late Saturday from the world’s largest ad company puts WPP’s omissions in grooming a successor to its 73-year-old founder into sharp focus, even with shareholders long flagging the issue. It also raises the prospect of a split, as WPP loses the man holding the empire together.
“There will be a feeding frenzy," Alex DeGroote, a media analyst at Cenkos Securities, said by email. “We would expect an orderly WPP breakup, releasing value to shareholders."
Sorrell, who turned a 1985 investment in a wire shopping basket manufacturer into today’s behemoth of more than 200,000 employees, was long seen as irreplaceable—the man pulling the strings to connect its more than 400 agencies who create marketing campaigns for clients such as Coca-Cola Co. and Procter and Gamble Co. Now, the group faces pitches from investment bankers pushing asset sales or a more dramatic dissolution.
WPP’s data management unit Kantar, whose revenue growth has “consistently underperformed" the group average, is the most obvious candidate for disposal and could raise £3.5 billion ($5 billion) to reduce debt or return cash to shareholders, Liberum analyst Ian Whittaker wrote in a note on Monday.
“The chances of significant chunks of the business being sold off have dramatically increased," Whittaker said. “Sir Martin could arguably be called the glue that bound much of WPP together."
Companies like Accenture Plc, a debt-free consultant five times WPP’s market value at about $100 billion, have been seen as potential suitors for WPP units, and have recently been buying up ad agencies.
WPP’s board is now focused on finding a long-term solution to replace a stop-gap plan of having two interim operating chiefs and an executive chairman.
The next CEO will be faced with reviewing WPP’s strategy as it battles declining ad spending, competition for digital work from consultants and the threat of web giants cutting out agency middle men.
“Any executive filling Sorrell’s shoes needs to orchestrate assets across the holding company and doing so is a challenge in a fragmented federation of businesses such as those which exist within WPP," Brian Wieser, a media analyst at Pivotal Research LLC, said in an emailed note.
Sorrell quit WPP less than two weeks after the leak of a probe being conducted by the company into allegations of personal misconduct and misuse of company assets, and just days before the board was set to publish the findings. He has denied the allegations and WPP said on Saturday that the investigation was complete, without revealing details.
In a statement to employees, Sorrell said that the current disruption was putting “too much unnecessary pressure on the business" and that in the interest of the company and its clients, it was “best for me to step aside". Bloomberg
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