Bob Willott of Marketing Services Financial Intelligence (who knows about these things) reckons Sir Martin Sorrell (below) and his co-investors have made a £38m paper profit on his new venture S4 Capital which reversed into a company called Derriston and listed on the Stock Exchange today.
One would imagine that the investors (including SMS) would hang on for a bit, as S4C has only just started trading. Its first acquisition is €300m Dutch creative production company MediaMonks. Some may be inclined to top up their next holiday fund though.
For Sorrell this means he still has plenty of fans among investors for his new venture, despite his messy departure from WPP, the firm he founded 33 years ago.
MediaMonks was bought on a pretty fancy multiple with the partners also due to receive big signing on fees so Sorrell’s new Dutch friends will have to go a bit to justify the optimism in S4C. For S4C to fly, Sorrell needs more deals but that’s clearly possible given such investor support.
Surely some or all of embattled MDC Partners must be on his radar.
Whatever happens, the big paper gain is a reminder that, in terms of money amid much else, Sorrell thinks big.
PS: Someone said the other day that Sorrell turned up to one of London’s upscale adland dining clubs shortly after his WPP exit – which takes balls. One agency founder, who’d been on the end of overtures from Sorrell and WPP (which he’d spurned) said he was looking for a good new financial director. Was Sorrell interested?
The cheek of it. He wasn’t.