Chemistry has been acquired by Publicis

It was essential to find an acquirer with the international reach and appetite to build upon Chemistry's impressive integrated offering. Together with a partner willing to navigate the additional challenges of a public to private transaction and the delisting Chemistry from the PLUS Market.

Results International has a long term relationship with Chemistry and advised on its strategic options throughout. Results ran a competitive process securing interest from an impressive group of international acquirers, from both 'trade' and 'private equity' groups. Publicis Groupe were selected as the ideal partner providing Chemistry with the opportunity to leverage Publicis Worldwide's global network, to service its existing international clients and expand its offering into new markets.

Results secured a cash offer of £14.5m being a 135% premium to the share price prior to the offer, together with a LTIP scheme for management of over £4m. An implied EV/EBIT multiple of 10x was achieved based upon EBIT of £1.63m for the year ended 30th November 2009 and net debt of £1.8m.

The resulting enlarged group to be renamed Publicis Chemistry with Joe Garton and Diane Charlton of Chemistry at the helm, will represent one of the largest integrated agencies in the UK.

Q: Why did you choose Results International?

After 6 years trading Chemistry began to look at how it could get the agency on to the next level in terms of international reach. We felt that in order to accelerate our achievement of this target that we needed to find a partner that could fund the necessary investment or alternatively provide access to an existing international network.

We turned to Results as they had the reputation of being the leading consultants to the UK marketing sector with significant experience and success on advising agencies in their search for similar partnerships. Their knowledge of the UK market together with their links with the large international networked agencies meant that Results were ideally suited to identify those key players that could meet our remit.

Q: Where did Results International add value in the sale process?

Having Results on board early on in the sale process allowed them to bring a focus to the nature and presentation of business information that is key if you are to attract the attention of interested parties. The way in which an agency presents its financial and business operations and achievements to a potential partner is very different to the way in which an agency delivers its credentials to clients and prospects.

Results, as a third party adviser, were adept at identifying the key elements of our business and so allow us to present ourselves at the right level and in a manner that was attractive to potential partners.

Chemistry Directors were well aware of the dangers in not having a third party negotiating on our behalf. Whilst it is true that both an agency and consultants are likely to come up with a similar shortlist of potential partners, the real value is in the total sale process.

Engaging Results to identify those parties that were truly interested and interesting, had the resources to execute a growth plan with Chemistry and who had the potential chemistry to work with the management team was invaluable. In particular, this prevented the management team from being totally consumed by a potential transaction and allowed us sufficient free time to continue running the business.

We would certainly recommend Results to established agencies that are looking to grow through seeking investor funding or to sell their business.