• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 17, 2006

In what appears to be a final stretch to his creeping takeover of U.K.-based media agency holding company Aegis Group, French financier Vincent Bollore has once again raised his stake, bringing it close to a critical takeover threshold just one week before the Aegis board will meet with shareholders at the company's annual meeting at the Cumberland Hotel in London. Bollore this morning disclosed that he has purchased another 11.3 million shares of Aegis stock, bringing his holdings to 27.56 percent of the company. It was his second share increase this week, and brings him closer to the 29.9 percent mark that would require him to make a formal takeover under U.K. law.

Aegis, the parent of media agencies such as Carat, Vizeum, Isobar and Posterscope, and research operations like marketing mix modeler MMA, did not comment on the move, but the Aegis board has recently begun jostling with Bollore over his representation o the Aegis board. Initially, Bollore who initiated a similar progressive takeover of Paris-based rival Havas last year, indicated that he would prefer to see Aegis operate as an independent company, even as he continued to amass shares. But according to the French financial press, Bollore is believed to have secured an unspecified number of seats on the Aegis board.

The agenda for Aegis' shareholder meeting, which includes such items as a dividend payment, the authorization of share repurchases and the reelection of Carat chief David Verklin as a company director, makes no note of Bollore's quest to attain seats on its board.

The bigger question, however, remains what Bollore's interests in Aegis ultimately are. Initially, he described it as an investment, but should he gain control over the company he would be in a position to merge it with Havas, effectively reunited two agency networks with French roots (Aegis' Carat unit began as a French media shop) or to spin off key assets, possibly Aegis' coveted Synovate research operations, to interested parties. WPP chief Martin Sorrell, who mounted a failed takeover bid with private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for Aegis early this year has been blocked under European law from mounting another bid until this month.

One scenario has Bollore merging Aegis' media networks with Havas' MPG unit, forming a new Paris-based mega media shop to compete with an increasingly consolidated media buying field, and selling Aegis' research operations to WPP.