WPP AUNZ to Sell ANZ Kantar Stake

Marcoms group WPP AUNZ has agreed to sell its entire stake in insight and analytics arm Kantar in Australia and New Zealand, as part of the global sale of Kantar shares to Bain Capital. The deal values the ANZ business at $AUD 168m.

Last month WPP plc, WPP AUNZ's majority shareholder, agreed to sell a 60% stake in Kantar globally to Bain Capital Private Equity for £3.2 bn. The WPP AUNZ sale in Australia and New Zealand, which is expected to close in early 2020, includes agencies Kantar Insights, Kantar Consulting, Lightspeed, The Online Research Unit and Colmar Brunton.

According to a statement, the sale will reduce debt and enable WPP AUNZ to return funds to shareholders. Proceeds to WPP AUNZ on completion, after transaction costs and provision for restructure liabilities of $8.4m, are expected to be c.$150m, payable in cash.

John Steedman (pictured), interim CEO of WPP AUNZ, explains: 'The sale proceeds will enable greater investment in the existing portfolio of companies to accelerate their growth potential and invest in new offerings and technologies that better serve customer needs. We expect to retain a close relationship with Kantar and work together, as we do now, to create better integrated solutions for our clients, particularly as our major shareholder, WPP plc, will continue to own 40% of the global Kantar business'.

Web sites: www.www.wppaunz.com and www.kantar.com .