Issue of Shares

RNS Number : 0569F

S4 Capital PLC

12 November 2020

 

12 November 2020

S4 Capital plc ("S⁴Capital" or the "Company")

Issue of Shares

On 21 June 2019, S4Capital plc (SFOR.L) announced a merger with BizTech (the "Transaction"). Pursuant to the terms of the Transaction, the owners of Biztech agreed to invest certain moneys payable to them as deferred consideration into the Company and the Company agreed to issue, 538,428 ordinary shares of 25 pence each in the capital of the Company, credited as fully paid, (the "Deferred Consideration Shares"). The Deferred Consideration Shares will be subject to a restriction on sale until 13 November 2022. 

Applications have been made to the FCA and to the London Stock Exchange for the Deferred Consideration Shares to be admitted to the standard segment of the Official List of the FCA and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities respectively ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will become effective at 8.00 a.m. on 13 November 2020.

S⁴Capital plc 

Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman

Powerscourt (PR Advisor)   Tel: [phone]

Elly Williamson

Jessica Hodgson

About S ⁴ Capital  

S4Capital plc (SFOR.L) is the tech-led, new age/new era digital advertising and marketing services company, established by Sir Martin Sorrell in May 2018.

Its strategy is to build a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multinational, regional, local clients and millennial-driven influencer brands. This will be achieved initially by integrating leading businesses in three practice areas: first-party data, digital content, digital media planning and buying, along with an emphasis on "faster, better, cheaper" executions in an always-on consumer-led environment, with a unitary structure.

Digital is by far the fastest-growing segment of the advertising market. S4Capital estimates that in 2019 digital accounted for approximately 47.5% or $275 billion of total global advertising spend of $550-600 billion (excluding about $400 billion of trade support, the primary target of the Amazon advertising platform), and projects that by 2022 this share will grow to approximately 55-60% and to 65-70% by 2024. It is anticipated that in 2020, total global advertising spend will shrink to approximately $500-550 billion, driven by a fall in traditional media advertising expenditure. However, digital advertising spend is expected to remain constant or increase slightly and exceed 50% of total advertising spend for the first time.

S4Capital combined with MediaMonks, the leading AdAge A-listed creative digital content production company led by Victor Knaap and Wesley ter Haar, in July 2018, and with MightyHive, the market-leading data & digital media solutions provider for future thinking marketers and agencies, led by Peter Kim and Christopher S. Martin, in December 2018.

In April 2019, MightyHive combined with ProgMedia to expand operations into Latin America and MediaMonks acquired film studio Caramel Pictures to expand content studio capabilities. In June 2019, MediaMonks announced a planned combination with Australia-based BizTech, a leading marketing transformation and customer experience company. In August 2019, MediaMonks combined with Amsterdam-based digital influencer marketing agency IMA. In October 2019, MediaMonks combined with Firewood Marketing, the largest digital marketing agency based in Silicon Valley, that was recently ranked, along with MediaMonks and Circus (see below), as one of the fastest growing agencies by Adweek, and MightyHive combined with award-winning UK-based digital analytics, biddable media and data science company ConversionWorks and South Korea-based data and analytics consultancy MightyHive Korea. In November 2019, MediaMonks announced its combination with Delhi-based content creation and production company WhiteBalance and then with fully integrated digital agency Circus Marketing in January 2020.

In May 2020, MightyHive announced a combination with Digodat, one of the leading Latin American data and analytics consultancies, and in June 2020, MightyHive announced its combination with Lens10, a leading Australian digital strategy and analytics consultancy. In July 2020, MightyHive announced a combination with Orca Pacific, a market leading full-service Amazon agency and boutique consultancy firm based out of Seattle. In August 2020, MightyHive announced a combination with London-based Brightblue, an econometric and media optimisation consultancy. In September 2020, MediaMonks announced its combination with Dare.Win, expanding its geographical presence to France.

On 16 July 2020 S4Capital announced the successful placing of 36,766,642 new ordinary shares at a price of 315p raising approximately £116m gross proceeds which will be used for further expansion and merger & combination purposes.

Victor Knaap, Wesley ter Haar, Pete Kim, Christopher Martin, Peter Rademaker and Scott Spirit all joined the S4Capital Board as Directors. The S4Capital Board also includes Rupert Faure Walker, Paul Roy, Daniel Pinto, Sue Prevezer, Elizabeth Buchanan, Naoko Okumoto, Margaret Ma Connolly and Miles Young.

The Company has 2,870 people in 31 countries across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific and a market capitalisation of approximately £2.3 billion (c.$3 billion), and would rank well into the FTSE 200. It has achieved Unicorn status in a little over one year, unique in the advertising and marketing services industry.

Sir Martin was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million "shell" company in 1985 into the world's largest advertising and marketing services company with a market capitalisation of over £16 billion on the day he left. Today its market capitalisation is £9 billion. Prior to that Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company plc for nine years. 

 

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