Chime, which owns the Bell Pottinger PR agencies and marketing services agency VCCP, revealed on Thursday that it had sold its remaining 51% stake in HHCL to WPP on December 31.
The holding company, headed by Lord Bell, has received 拢2.75m for the stake. The original agreement would have seen WPP paying 51% of eight times the pre-tax profits of HHCL for the years ended December 31 2005 and December 31 2006. But Chime said today that the current outlook suggested no more money would be forthcoming.
In 2003, WPP had paid it 拢3.5m for a 49% stake in HHCL, with a further 拢500,000 payable on the grounds that HHCL make over 拢8m in revenues for the year -- a target met by the agency.
Some of the proceeds from the sale of HHCL will be used by Chime to begin a programme to purchase shares for cancellation. Shares in the company rose by over 5% to 31.36p, a rise of 1.61p, on the news.
HHCL agency saw a number of senior departures at the end of last year, including chief executive Nick Howarth and creative directors Jonathan Burley and Jim Bolton.
Since it bought the rest of the agency, WPP has renamed it United London and appointed Jim Kelly and Robert Campbell, founders of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, to run it.
Lord Bell said: "We always said we would dispose of the stake when we thought the time was right, and now it is."
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