LONDON (Brand Republic) - Cordiant Communications has admitted it held talks in the past with US rival True North about a potential takeover, but stressed it was currently not in discussion with any interested parties.
Michael Bungey, Cordiant chief executive, said consolidation within the advertising sector was inevitable. He recently admitted he did not see the company鈥檚 ultimate goal as maintaining its independence. The company owns Bates Worldwide and a 50% chunk of media-buying company Zenith Media.
Cordiant pipped True North, which runs the FCB and Bozell agencies, to the post to buy US marketing and exhibitions firm Lighthouse earlier this year, making it the 10th largest agency group in the world.
鈥淚t will take something pretty interesting to make us join with someone else. That doesn鈥檛 mean we won鈥檛 look at doing things with others, but we are a stronger business than we鈥檝e ever been,鈥 Bungey said.
He revealed pre-tax profits up 66.4% to £17.8m compared to £11.1m for the same period last year.