Havas silent on revising bid for Tempus

The French advertising group Havas yesterday kept silent on whether it will revise its bid for Tempus, the UK media buying company that received a £437m counter bid from rival WPP, as it reported underlying growth in first-half revenue of 5.5 per cent.

Havas's figures came a day after WPP, the advertising services giant, reported its interim revenues showed a 3 per cent underlying gain.

The French group's trading statement underlined how badly it needs Tempus, for which it has offered £425m, to build scale in the fast consolidating global advertising industry. Though Havas ranks number five world-wide, its interim sales, which grew 47 per cent to 1.1bn euros (£680m) on the back of acquisitions, are one-third of the levels of the top three players: WPP, Omincom and Interpublic.

As Alain de Pouzilhac, the chief executive of Havas, kept investors guessing about the timing of a new offer, it was unclear how he would deal with Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP. Asked whether Mr De Pouzilhac would make a direct approach to Sir Martin to secure a deal, an advisor to Havas said: "People have talked about that. It's not top of the agenda at the moment."

The share price of Havas, which extended its offer for Tempus to 3 September, rallied 2.8 per cent to 10.69 euros, improving the terms of its share-backed alternative for Tempus.