Mission Group rebuffs £27m bid approach from Brave Bison

Digital marketing firm Mission Group has rejected a takeover approach from rival Brave Bison, which owns the Social Chain agency founded by Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett.

Brave Bison – which last year bought Social Chain – tabled a possible all-stock offer worth around 29p a share, valuing fellow Aim-listed rival Mission Group at about £27 million.

But Mission said its board unanimously rebuffed the approach, which it said was “opportunistic and significantly undervalues the group and its prospects”.

Brave Bison, which is backed by billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft, said it was in talks with Mission’s board and major shareholders to garner support for a deal.

Brave Bison said a tie-up between the pair would create one of the UK’s largest independent digital marketing agencies on Aim, a combined group with sales of around £120 million and underlying earnings of about £14 million.

Brave Bison said the enlarged group would be headed up by brothers Oliver and Theo Green, executive chairman and chief growth officer of the firm, who took over the company in 2020.

Brave Bison said: “A company of this size, scale and profitability would present a more attractive investment opportunity to institutional shareholders than either standalone company, leading to the possibility of the enlarged Brave Bison trading at a higher multiple of earnings.”

The group added that a takeover would strengthen Mission’s balance sheet, claiming that Mission has loans and “certain overdue creditors” totalling around £30 million, which it said were repayable within two years.

Oliver Green said the deal has “the potential to deliver compelling value for both companies’ shareholders, clients and employees”.

But Mission has yet to allow Brave Bison to access its books.

Brave Bison said: “Mission’s board has yet to provide due diligence access to Brave Bison, which is one of a number of factors preventing Brave Bison from announcing a firm offer.

“Mission shareholders who would be interested in seeing Brave Bison announce a firm offer for Mission are encouraged to contact the board of Mission to express their support for the possible offer.”

But Mission urged its shareholders to “take no action at this time”.

Former Conservative Party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has a stake of more than 20% in Brave Bison, which operates across nine countries.

Mission, which employs more than 1,100 staff, creates digital marketing materials for firms including Google, Porsche, Kinder and Speedo.