WPP likely to bid for The Moving Picture Company

LONDON – WPP is understood to be considering bidding for ITV's post-production unit The Moving Picture Company as ITV begins to dispose of several of its non-core assets, believed to be worth around £550m.

Sir Martin Sorrell's global advertising group is one of several firms looking at buying the company. Others include Michael Green, the former Carlton chairman, French electronics group Thomson Technicolor, UK entertainment company Rank and a number of venture capitalists.

WPP is keen to add a commercials and feature film company to its portfolio of post-production businesses, which includes Metro Group and The Farm Group.

The Moving Picture Company has produced commercials for Levi's, Nike, Motorola, Adidas and Stella Artois, feature films Tomb Raider, Troy and the Harry Potter movies and music videos for Primal Scream, Madonna and Kylie Minogue.

Analysts estimate that bids for the company could be as high as £25m but the interest in the company is likely to push the price higher.

A Moving Picture Company deal is not likely to be completed before December. However, Charles Allen, the ITV chairman, hopes to sell as many assets as possible before the company's results on September 9.

The sale process began earlier this week when ITV disposed of Carlton Books, worth £2.5m. It had been making losses of around £1m a year.

Other assets expected to be sold are cinema advertising business Carlton Screen Advertising, which Green thought to also be intereted in, and education specialis Granada Learning.

ITV's stakes in SMG, which owns the Grampian and Scottish television franchises, and in the Liverpool and Arsenal football clubs are also up for sale.

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