Shareholders will be asked to vote on several questions today with at least one, the approval of the sale of financial PR firm FD International, being a foregone conclusion.
They will then be asked to either back or oppose the 拢10m bid for Cordiant by WPP. Fund manager Active Value, which has over the weeks spent more than 拢30m building up a 28.75% stake in Cordiant, could oppose the move, which would force Cordiant into administration.
Such a move is seen as increasingly unlikely as administration can only further harm the battered reputation of Cordiant and its constituent agencies.
In administration, WPP, which controls 拢296m of Cordiant's debt, has the superior position. It could use this debt to trade for the company should administration happen.
After a second vote to approve the WPP deal, there will be then be a vote on Active Value's bid to remove the Cordiant management, led by chief executive David Hearn.
Active Value had planned to install Richard Wheatly, the former Jazz FM and Leo Burnett chief, and Stephen Davidson, a former West LB executive, but these two and a still unnamed agency chief executive withdrew their candidacy last week.
This appeared to leave Active Value with nowhere to go, but it could still oppose Hearn and his management team's re-election. Even if it does not nominate replacement candidates, it could still use the time between today's vote and August 1, when the WPP takeover becomes effective, to seek out a better deal.
It would have access to more Cordiant information and it could be supported in its efforts by Syrian-born billionaire Nahed Ojjeh, who has built up almost an 11% stake in Cordiant.
Last week, the Takeover Panel concluded that she broke its disclosure rules, but it was powerless to do anything more than criticise her. Her intentions are still unknown, but she could support Active Value's vote on the re-election of the management team.
The Paris-based Ojjeh has denied she has any connection with French giant Publicis Groupe, which has said its only interest lies in taking control of Cordiant's 25% stake in ZenithOptimedia.
Cordiant has urged shareholders to back WPP Group's offer. It said last week that the withdrawal of the management team recommended by Active Value confirmed its view that none of the resolutions proposed by Active Value represent a viable alternative to the existing strategy that has been recommended by the board to shareholders: namely the proposed acquisition of Cordiant by WPP.
"Accordingly, the Cordiant board continues to recommend shareholders to vote against all of the surviving Active Value requisitioned resolutions, and in favour of the WPP offer," it said in a statement.
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