The pair have until noon on 25 November to decide whether to bid.WPP announced third-quarter results yesterday that saw revenue rise 26 per cent to £1.35bn with like-for-like sales ahead by 5 per cent. The 143p level is the highest price that the French financier Vincent Bollor?aid for building a 20 per cent stake in Aegis, a position which adds a further complication to anyone considering taking over the company M. Bollor?ns a 23 per cent stake in Havas, another French media group.Aegis had originally been the subject of bid interest from Publicis, WPP's French rival, which withdrew in mid-October having indicated its willingness to pay 140p a share. The Takeover Panel has issued a "put up or shut up" ultimatum to WPP and its US private-equity partner, Hellman & Friedman, over their interest in mounting a bid for Aegis, the UK media buying agency. However, the prospects of a bid for Aegis are beginning to wane. Although WPP and Hellman & Friedman continue to mull a deal for Aegis, it is understood the two parties are struggling to persuade Aegis to provide the data they feel is necessary for assessing a bid.
For its part, Aegis is reluctant to reveal too much commercially sensitive information to a direct rival. Any bidder would almost certainly have to pay at least 143p a share, compared with Aegis's 123p closing price yesterday. He said: "These jobs play a fulfilling and important economic and social function. If the jobs are necessary they can be justified on that basis and if the productivity of these workers is low that is a separate issue."The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, also provide a detailed regional picture. Almost one in three workers in Northern Ireland works for the state, while Scotland and the North East were both close to one in four.
The South-east and East Midlands were lowest with 18 per cent.. One could argue that it is one reason why the productivity figures are so bad. No one is saying that recruiting managers is wrong but if they are not helping to use the resources better then they are not paying their way."Figures last month showed that annual growth in UK workers' productivity hit a 15-year low of 0.5 per cent over the summer, which City analysts blamed on public-sector output.But John Philpott, the chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said critics of public-sector jobs growth should be wary of playing an "ideological numbers game". In the NHS, clinical staff numbers rose 4.2 per cent while numbers of support staff rose 5.9 per cent. Police numbers showed a 1.4 per cent rise in officers but a 4.7 per cent jump in civilian staff.Ruth Lea, the director of the Centre for Policy Studies, a right-leaning think-tank, said: "I think one does have to question what these people are doing.