Sorrell's new venture S4 to go public via reverse takeover of Derriston

Derriston Capital has reached agreement on the terms of a transaction to acquire S4 Capital, a newly incorporated company that recently completed a £51m equity fundraising, it announced on Wednesday.

The London-listed firm said the transaction with S4 Capital would constitute a reverse takeover under the Listing Rule, and as a result it had requested a suspension of listing of its shares.

It said it was proposing the conditional acquisition of S4 Capital, whose £51m equity fundraise consisted of a £40m contribution from former WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell, with the balance of the funds coming from institutional and other investors.

S4 Capital had received “substantial” non-binding letters of support from a number of its institutional investors indicating that they would, in principle, be willing to provide more than £150m of further equity funding to support its acquisition plans, Derriston explained.

It also proposed the appointment of Sir Martin Sorrell as executive chairman and Paul Roy and Rupert Faure Walker as non-executive directors on completion, and would implement a new corporate strategy to build a multi-national communication services business, initially by acquisitions.

The acquisition of S4 Capital would result in the issue of 591,967,000 new ordinary shares, and a change of the company’s name to S4 Capital plc.

“S4 Capital is a company that aims to build a multi-national communication services business focused on growth,” said Sir Martin Sorrell.

“There are significant opportunities for development in technology, data and content. I look forward to making this happen.”