France's Havas CEO denies deal talks with ad group WPP, Bloomberg News reports

Havas and WPP: Clarifying the Investment Rumors

(Reuters) -The chief executive of France's Havas has denied being in talks with WPP about a potential investment in the British ad firm, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.

"Given the recent press coverage... and the questions we've received from colleagues and clients, we want to clarify that we are not in discussions with WPP," Bloomberg reported Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré as saying in a memo to employees.

Havas did not respond to a request for comment.

Market Reaction to the Denial

The reported denial comes after The Times reported, citing sources, that WPP had drawn takeover interest from the French company, as well as private equity firms Apollo and KKR.

WPP's Current Financial Status

WPP's shares closed more than 11% higher on Monday, but have lost more than 60% year-to-date and languish near 27-year lows. The ad firm has a market valuation of about 3 billion pounds ($3.95 billion).

Leadership Changes at WPP

Founded by Martin Sorrell in 1985, WPP warned about profits last month after reporting a worse-than-expected drop in sales. It is in the midst of an operational overhaul under new CEO Cindy Rose, who is looking to simplify the group while focusing on data and AI.

WPP, KKR and Apollo also did not respond to requests for comment.

($1 = 0.7596 pounds)

(Reporting by Ankita Bora, Nithyashree R B and Shashwat Awasthi, additional reporting by Risha Shaju in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Cynthia Osterman)