Private equity firm reportedly makes offer for Kantar Media

Sky News reported that HIG Europe has made a “serious and credible” offer to acquire Kantar Media, with the possibility that other companies could join the bidding.

HIG Europe is a private equity firm with more than 400 companies in its portfolio, including delivery service provider DX Group, and has offices in London, Luxembourg, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan and Paris. Its parent company, HIG Capital, was founded in 1993 and is based in Miami.

The negotiations follow a report in the Sunday Times in November that said that several companies were interested in buying Kantar Media, and estimated the value of any potential deal to be around £1bn.

Ipsos had previously said it was exploring a deal to buy Kantar Media, but last week confirmed it would not be submitting any offer.

Kantar Media is part of Kantar, which is jointly owned by private equity company Bain Capital and advertising firm WPP. Kantar was founded as WPP’s market research division in 1992.

WPP sold a 60% stake in Kantar Group to Bain Capital in 2019 that valued the company at around £3.2bn.

Bain Capital and Kantar Media declined to comment. HIG Europe had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.