I’m not off to the beach, says Ingram

Your story in last week’s issue “Y&R in &£218m bid for Tempus” (MW July 15) has set a lot of hares running.

Reading between the lines, readers could have thought that we had put our business up for sale and I was off to the beach. So let me clarify.

Yes, a number of major agency groups have approached us in the past 18 months, as media has, finally, moved onto their radar screen. As a public company, if someone puts a firm offer on the table, we would have to consider it. (No one has, so this bit is academic.) Then we would have to decide if we should recommend it. That’s true for any public company.

However, we are most definitely not inviting people to bid for us. We are an independent company and we want to stay that way. The very reason why companies and people want to join our group is because we are focused on media communications from top to bottom; we’re fleet of foot; and we’re independent. Despite our growing size, they feel if they join us, they can make a difference.

So we are certainly in no rush to give all that up. Besides, we are still having fun and there are lots of opportunities out there.

Chris Ingram

Chairman

Tempus Group

London EC4