Regional marketing group chaired by Francis Maude seeks AIM listing

LONDON – Regional marketing agency The Mission Marketing Group is seeking a listing on AIM, which would make it the third-largest regional agency in the UK.

The AIM listing of the group, chaired by Tory Party chairman Francis Maude, will be followed by the acquisition of regional marketing agency Bray Leino for £24.5m, the group said. If Bray Leino achieves agreed growth targets, the final cash paid for the acquisition will be £32.5m.

The merger will give TheMission, incorporated in 2002, a turnover of £47.5m and a presence in Bristol, Leicester, London and Scotland.

TheMission last year acquired two Leicester-based communications agencies, Big Communications and Fuse Digital, taking on clients including Alliance & Leicester, Next, Virgin Cola, Carlsberg, Greenpeace and the British Heart Foundation.

Bray Leino is a full-service agency with a number of healthcare clients including Bausch & Lomb, Dendron, Lilly and Sanofi Pasteur MSD, and a growing PR consultancy with clients including BP and Britax.

Iain Ferguson, TheMission chief executive, said the AIM listing would give the group access to new capital and enable it to make further acquisitions of regional marketing agencies.

Ferguson, formerly chief executive officer of Euro RSCG Marketing Services, said: "We aim to build TheMission into the first super-regional agency. Economic and industrial trends favour creative, effective, cost-efficient agencies with regional and national coverage. 

"TheMission can capitalise on a changing market by offering great talent and award-winning work in new and traditional media, while enjoying the benefits of a relatively lower cost base."

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