WPP head backs Vincent Bolloré to take over Aegis after Synovate sale

Sir Martin Sorrell has backed Aegis Media's largest shareholder, Vincent Bolloré, to take over the UK media buying company after the conclusion of the sell-off of its research arm Synovate .

Sorrell, speaking to MediaGuardian.co.uk at the Cannes Lions International, also said he had no problem with the potential market impact of News Corporation's proposed takeover of the 60% of BSkyB it does not already own.

"It is totally fine, I don't see the difference to where they are now and where they would be," he said.

Sorrell has previously said he is not interested in buying Synovate – WPP acquired research firm TNS in 2008 – but on Thursday admitted that some parts of Aegis Media were attractive to WPP.

Analysts have pointed out that there are likely to be anti-trust issues in some countries, as WPP is already a dominant force in media buying in most major advertising markets.

However, Aegis Media also owns creative businesses such as the Isobar network and recent acquisition Mitchell's in Australia.

Sorrell said WPP had "not looked at it" but said there were "bits" of Aegis Media that were "interesting". "Anti-trust doesn't apply to everywhere in the world," he added.

However he made it clear that speculation on the potential sell-off of either Synovate, which is likely to be sold to French research firm Ipsos, or Aegis Media was purely an "academic question" given Bolloré's 26.5% share holding.

"Jerry Buhlmann is chief executive [of Aegis Group] in a company with a 30% shareholder sitting on his shoulder, a Bolloré parrot on his shoulder," he said. "It is not in his gift [to sell], you have to go and bend the knee to Vincent, have to ask his permission. He decides what happens, he can stop it. Even if it is 51% [of voters required to sell Synovate or Aegis Media] it is 51% of those voting and he is in control of it."

Some analysts have installed Maurice Levy's Publicis Groupe – which has also said it is not interested in Synovate – in pole position for buying Aegis Media if it comes to market.

Sorrell's money is on Bolloré, who despite recently claiming that his stake in Aegis was now just "financial" and not "strategic" has previously long argued the logic of a tie-up with Havas.

"I think the primary candidate [to take control of Aegis Media] is Bolloré," he said. "If you own Havas then Havas plus Aegis has got to be worth more than Havas alone."

Sorrell also said he believed that Ipsos will be the victor in the £500m acquisition of Synovate – no rival bids have yet emerged – but felt that Aegis Group executives should have made Bolloré aware of the talks earlier.

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