• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 25, 2013

Market research company Ipsos made its first detailed public comments apart from court documents this week about its legal battle with Aegis Group concerning the sale of the latter’s Synovate research arm to Ipsos two years ago.

Paris-based Ipsos agreed to buy Synovate in 2011 for more than $800 million.

The company filed a breach of contract suit in a London court earlier this year after the two sides failed to resolve a price-rebate dispute over how much Ipsos was entitled to, based on post-closing adjustments that were specified in the acquisition contract.

Ipsos claims that under the terms of the adjustment clauses, Aegis owes it more than $150 million. According to Ipsos, the adjustments “take into account the actual level of cash, debt and related items, as well as on the actual level of working capital requirement at [Sept. 30, 2011] compared to the minimum level defined in the contract.”

Earlier this month, Aegis paid Ipsos approximately $20 million to cover what it claims is the total adjustment required under the contract. That is based on the report of an independent assessor that the parties turned to in order to help resolve the dispute.  

In its comments earlier this week, Ipsos said it “disagrees with this calculation and some of the expertise positions” taken by the independent assessor.

“Ipsos is not a company that thrives on litigation,” the firm stated. “We simply want to make sure the company's rights and interests are respected.”

Aegis had no comment at deadline. However, the company told Bloomberg in a story about the suit last week that it had "refuted" Ispsos' allegations in its London court briefs.

The latest Ipsos comments about the contretemps were spelled out in a Wednesday release that detailed the company’s first-half financial results. Revenues totaled nearly $1.1 billion, down 4% compared to the same period in 2012 -- mainly due to a negative currency effect of 2.2%, the firm said.

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