Yesterday, it emerged that the fund manager had taken its holding in Cordiant above the crucial 25% it needs to block WPP's 拢266m bid at an emergency shareholder meeting.
This morning, it further emerged that Active Value had not stopped buying Cordiant's shares when its stake hit 25.13% and, instead, it had continued to buy. Its stake in Cordiant has now increased to 25.73%.
Its latest move has left City analysts questioning what Active Value's next move will be in the battle for the troubled advertising group.
There are several options analysts believe Active Value has but, having lost the support of investment bank WestLB earlier this week, it has no other public supporters.
One option, and possibly the most realistic at this late stage, is that buying up Cordiant's shares is simply a bluff to force WPP to increase its 2.4p offer, which gives shareholders just 拢10m.
Simon Lapthorne, media analyst at Old Mutual Securities, said: "It could be an elaborate bluff. On the face of it, it's good money after bad. It could use it as a bargaining chip to counter WPP, taking the view that WPP does not want to put Cordiant into administration, which would be expensive and messy.
"It might be enough to persuade WPP to offer more than the 2.4p it has already offered, but whether it would be enough to make all this worthwhile is another matter."
However, if it blocks WPP's bid, Cordiant could go into administration and shareholders would get nothing -- not even the 拢10m that the WPP offer values the troubled ad firm at.
In administration, WPP, which now controls most of Cordiant's debt, would have a chance of acquiring the assets it was most interested in, but it would not necessarily get everything.
According to Lapthorne, Active Value could be looking to force Cordiant into administration and then try to acquire bits of the business itself. This would be in line with its original plan, which was to install a new management team at Cordiant and keep the firm independent.
"[Active Value] might genuinely want to force Cordiant into administration where it might get some of the assets for next to nothing. It could then proceed with its original plan to trade its way out of problems and run it as a business," he said.
However, Lapthorne points out that such a course of action would "involve selling other shareholders down the river, as they would get nothing. It seems extremely odd and something of a long shot".
Such a move would further damager Active Value's reputation. It has already spent more than 拢30m on its Cordiant investments.
Active Value had originally planned to inject 拢40m in funds into Cordiant and install Richard Wheatly, the former head of Jazz FM and Leo Burnett, as chairman to replace chief executive David Hearn.
Closely related to this new information, it emerged this morning that Ben Langdon, the ousted regional director of McCann-Erickson WorldGroup, had been involved with Active Value and was possibly being lined up as a chief executive to work with Wheatly.
北京赛车pk10 reported that Langdon had been meeting with Active Value about its proposed bid for Cordiant, and had been touted as its prospective chief executive.
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