AD GIANT M&C Saatchi extended its 'put up or shut up' deadline once again yesterday for the AdvancedAdvT's takeover bid, pushing the investment vehicle to either make a stronger offer, or walk away.

It said the current proposal undervalues the firm, and therefore would not be recommended to its shareholders.

"While the company continues to facilitate access to provide AdvT with the opportunity to make a formal offer to the company's shareholders, no revised proposal has been forthcoming," the company stated.

The latest offering was made in February, where accepting Saatchi shareholders would get either 1.939 new AdvT ordinary shares and 40p in cash for each share held, or 2.347 new AdvT ordinary shares for each M&C share.

Despite months of negotiation and back and forth, the two sides cannot seem to agree on the details of its share exchange merger. Instead, the ad giant, which boasts clients such as Uber and Google, has imposed a new deadline for the acquisition vehicle company to make a formal offer or walk away for May 10.

However, the risk with such a move is that after such a dragged out process, Vin Murria, who is the biggest shareholder in the company, with a personal stake in M&C Saatchi of 12.5 per cent, could in fact call M&C's bluff and 'shut up'.

However, this may not be as disastrous for Saatchi as it may have once been.

Shares have climbed in recent months thanks to a strong balance sheet and impressive client wins.

M&C Saatchi, which was founded in 1995 by ad moguls and brothers Maurice and Charles Saatchi, is perhaps best known known for its campaigns for the Conservative Party. But in 2019 the company became embroiled in an accounting scandal.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched an investigation into the firm after a review by auditor PwC found divisions in the firm's UK business had overstated income and amounts owed by clients. In the end, it estimated accounting errors of £11.6m, spread over its 2018 and 2019 financial results Earlier this year, however, the FCA said it would not to take any action against the firm and closed its investigation.

(c) 2022 City A.M., source Newspaper