A deal-hungry London-listed marketing group backed by Rupert Murdoch and Lord Ashcroft, the former Tory treasurer, has made a £50m approach to buy a division of M&C Saatchi.
Sky News has learnt that Brave Bison, run by brothers Oli and Theo Green, has tabled a cash-and-stock proposal to acquire M&C Performance.
The target handles media planning and buying across digital channels, a key growth area in the marketing industry.
M&C Performance’s clients include Amazon and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
City sources said this weekend that M&C Saatchi had received the offer from Brave Bison but that its response was unclear.
If it progresses, it would be the latest in a string of deals for Brave Bison, which has bought five other businesses this year alone.
Among them was MiniMBA, an e-learning and training business serving marketing and technology professionals, which it bought from Centaur Media.
Brave Bison, whose clients include Primark and Real Madrid, has also bought Engage, a sports marketing specialist.
Any deal for M&C Performance would involve issuing new stock as well as utilising Brave Bison’s debt facilities, banking sources suggested on Sunday.
Brave Bison’s shares have almost doubled during the year to date, while M&C Saatchi’s stock has fallen by 22% during the same period.
The latter has a market capitalisation of roughly £160m, little more than half the value of an offer three years ago which priced it at more than £300m including debt.
Mr Murdoch’s News Corporation took a stake in Brave Bison earlier this year through a combinationn of their influencer marketing divisions.
The Green brothers took over Brave Bison in 2020, and have overseen a sharp strategic realignment and improvement in its performance.
Last year, it bought the podcaster and entrepreneur Steven Bartlett’s social media and influencer agency, SocialChain.
At Friday’s stock market close, Brave Bison had a market capitalisation of about £82m.
Both Brave Bison and M&C Saatchi declined to comment.
