WPP: completes sale of Kantar stake

(CercleFinance.com) - British media group WPP has completed the sale of 60% of its data, research, consulting and analytics unit Kantar to private equity firm Bain Capital earlier than expected, the company said.


Late on Thursday WPP confirmed that it intends to retain approximately 60% of the net proceeds to reduce debt, returning about 40% of the proceeds to shareholders.

Returns to shareholders will be made via a share repurchase program, which WPP expects to begin shortly, with an initial tranche of approximately 250 million pounds from the total of 950 million pounds, which is set to be completed by March 2020.

WPP's 40% investment in Kantar has an estimated value of approximately 3.1 billion dollars.

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