Sir Martin Sorrell suffers £100m hit as S4 Capital shares tumble Business

Sir Martin has a 10% stake in S4, which had a peak market value of almost £5billion in August.

He launched the online advertising empire in 2018 after an acrimonious departure from WPP, founded by Sir Martin decades earlier.

The move comes after S4 announced earlier this month that PwC needed more time to complete its audit work due to “the impact of Covid and omicron on travel and resource allocation, especially in the Netherlands”. Its annual results were originally due to be released on March 18.

In a statement, S4 said it was informed at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday that PwC could not complete the work needed to release S4 Capital’s results.

He added: “As a result, the company will release its preliminary results for 2021 as soon as PwC completes its work.

“The company believes that results for 2021 remain within the range of market expectations and have continued to trade strongly in the first two months of 2022.”

Sir Martin, 77, started S4 as a shell company before amassing a war chest to crack tech-focused advertising and marketing ventures as he sought to capitalize on the digital advertising boom led by Google, Facebook and Amazon.

He claimed he started the company to ‘prove a point’ to WPP, the company he took over in 1985 and turned into an advertising juggernaut through a series of major deals before leaving on allegations of misconduct which he has always denied.

The foundations of S4 were sealed when Sir Martin bought MightyHive, a Silicon Valley-based data and media company, and Dutch digital production company Media Monks, which he merged into a single brand called Media.Monks in August.

Its most recent takeovers have been heavily tech-focused in a move that has put greater distance between S4 and traditional ad agencies, and recast Sir Martin as a tech mogul.

In January, Sir Martin announced that data consultancy 4 Mile Analytics would be integrated into his advertising empire following deals struck with digital services firm Maverick Digital and creative agency Miyagi at the end of the year. ‘last year.

Sir Martin continues to have a combative relationship with WPP, which announced in April last year that it was withholding outstanding bonuses from him over allegations that he leaked confidential company information.