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Finsbury Glover Hering, which is majority-owned by WPP, is merging with Sard Verbinnen & Co. to create a firm they say chalked up $330M in combined 2020 revenues and will have more than 1,000 staffers in 25 offices throughout the world.
The transaction values the combined group at $917M and SVC at $303M. FGH, which had gross assets of $426.8M at year-end 2020, registered pre-tax profit of $53.5M.
SVC earned $36.4M on $52.2M in gross assets.
Headquartered in New York, FGH CEO Alexander Geiser and COO Sydney Neuhaus will continue as leaders of the combined entity.
SVC co-founder George Sard will join FGH’s Roland Rudd and Carter Eskew as co-chairmen.
The merger combines two firms with a “heritage of delivering for our clients at their most high-pressure moments,” Sard and SVB co-founder Paul Verbinnen said in a statement.
It creates a strategic communications powerhouse in government affairs, corporate reputation and crisis management as well as a leader in financial communications with strengths in M&A activity, private equity, IPOs, SPACs, shareholder activism and restructurings.
WPP will own 57.4 percent of FGH-SVC. FGH/SVC managers will control about 40 percent. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the year and the company will have a new name in 2022.
Public Policy Holding Company registered 23.8 percent Q3 growth to $48.8M, with organic growth contributing 4.5 percent and the balance driven by merger & acquisition activity.
Publicis Groupe reported 3.1 percent in Q3 growth to $4B, sparked by a 3.6 percent jump North America, its biggest market.
WPP suffered a 10.2 percent drop in 1H revenues to $6.7B and a 47.8 percent plunge in operating profit to $297M.
Interpublic reported Q2 net revenues dropped 6.6 percent to $2.2B and operating income tumbled 23.4 percent to $243.7M. 
WPP has adopted a gloomier profit and sales forecast due to a deteriorating Q2 financial performance triggered by weak client spending as companies cope with the challenging economic backdrop.
