AdvancedAdvt Ltd on Friday reported a significantly widened loss after its failed attempt to acquire advertising agency M&C Saatchi PLC, but it retained significant cash for further acquisitions.

The London-based acquisition vehicle had £104.2 million in cash as at June 30 and had net assets of £121.6 million at the same date. Its net asset value per share was 91.3 pence.

In the financial year that ended June 30, pretax loss widened to £7.7 million from £2.6 million the year before, as administrative expenses increased to £3.3 million from £2.6 million, while it recorded other losses of £4.8 million, up from none the year before.

Much of these losses came from AdvancedAdvT’s attempt to acquire M&C Saatchi.

AdvancedAdvT and its chair, Vin Murria, together held an almost 23% stake in M&C Saatchi, and Murria had been a M&C Saatchi board member, but they couldn’t convince other M&C Saatchi shareholders to support the cash-and-shares takeover offer. The final offer lapsed at the end of September.

As a significant shareholder in M&C, AdvancedAdvT ‘will continue to assess all potential value creation opportunities for M&C.’

No dividends will be paid until after an acquisition, it said.

The company noted that ‘the significant macroeconomic uncertainty and disruption across a number of industries is likely to result in accelerated structural change in certain sectors which will result in the emergence of a number of investment opportunities.’

Chair Murria said: ‘We believe that our strong cash position, the current economic downturn combined with our disciplined and patient approach, will put us in a prime position to execute on our strategy.’

Shares in AdvancedAdvt were untraded on Friday but closed at 69.40 pence each on Thursday.

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.