WPP Bankrolling Chime's Buyout Of HHCL In London

NEW YORK
In a deal that involves three of the most well-known figures in the British communications industry, a top independent London ad agency, Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury + Partners, is selling to Sir Tim Bell’s public relations-driven Chime Communications for $51 million in cash and stock.
WPP Group is effectively bankrolling the deal by coming in as a third partner, buying a 29.9 percent stake in Chime for about $24 million. Under U.K. trading laws, that holding is the maximum allowed before WPP must bid for all outstanding shares.
WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell and powerbroker Bell both worked with Maurice and Charles Saatchi in the 1980s.