Sir Martin Sorrell spent more than three decades building his first empire. He has given himself five years to create his second. Within weeks of being ousted from WPP, which he built from a small Kent-based maker of wire baskets into the world’s biggest ad group, Sorrell began plotting his return.
Last week, he announced the reverse takeover of another small listed vehicle – to be renamed S4 Capital in reference to four generations of the Sorrell family – fronting £40m of his own money to rebuild his empire. Sorrell once said that there was “no way” he would still want to be running a big ad business by the time he hits 78, and he won’t: he will be running a start-up.
At 73, and even with a small child, the seemingly indefatigable Sorrell has set himself five years to get big and get out one last time.
“He has unfinished business, a grievance, and he wants to prove a point to WPP,” says one ad industry peer. “He has proved he is serious, fronting £40m of his own cash to attract other investors. He has every chance of building something quite interesting over the five-year timeline he has set himself.”
Sorrell’s personal financial commitment and track record has attracted £11m more from institutional investors and a further commitment, albeit non-binding, for another £150m to fuel an acquisition spree.
The real question is whether Sorrell’s comeback in the twilight years of his business career is a shrewd move. Will hubris get the better of him? “In the space of a few weeks, Sorrell has gone from being the defender of the global ad holding company model he helped create to saying they are not fit for purpose and there is a better way of doing it,” says one detractor.
Despite the air of scepticism, there have been plenty of business leaders who have staged successful second acts in later life. Carpet king Lord Harris, founder of Carpetright, left it in 2014 and backed his son in setting up rival Tapi, following an apparent falling-out with management. The 72-year-old has pulled the rug out from under his old company, which has blamed Tapi for some of its problems and recently closed dozens of stores.
The founder of furniture chain DFS, Lord Kirkham, copied his old friend Harris, backing his son in setting up Fabb Sofas in 2016 at the age of 71. While his son and daughter each control 30% of the business, Kirkham is a key adviser, and DFS has proved a fertile target for poaching staff for the new company. At Iceland, Sir Malcolm Walker successfully returned to buy back and run the frozen food chain in 2005 after being ousted in 2001, admittedly at the more youthful age of 59.
Of course, history is also littered with big-name failures. During the turn-of-the-century market mania, four famous business figures led by Archie Norman, now the chair of Marks & Spencer, took over a cash shell called Knutsford with the aim of buying a major retailer, but got precisely nowhere.
Claire Enders, the founder of Enders Analysis, says that like these other business leaders, whether he succeeds or fails, Sorrell cannot step back: “He cannot change his character and be someone who retires: it is not his way.”
She adds: “There are 33 years [spent at the helm of WPP] he can’t have again – and whether he has the same judgment is another matter – but Sorrell is a workaholic and incredibly motivated by achievement.”
Enders points out that in the media industry, gerontocracies are strikingly common: Rupert Murdoch is 87, Liberty Global owner John Malone is 77, serial entrepreneur Barry Diller is 76 and Viacom’s Sumner Redstone, aged 95, is still hanging in there – albeit leaning heavily on his daughter Shari.
“Sorrell, being 73, is a spring chicken,” says Enders. “What is relevant is that you are as good as your last deal. That is what counts, not age.”
With Sorrell’s telephone book, she reckons few would bet against him. “He has fantastic contacts with every major chief executive on the planet: he can get a meeting with anyone,” she says. “If anyone can build a business, he can.”
Enders believes that Sorrell may even look to make the ultimate final deal – bidding for parts of the WPP empire that he created, such as data business Kantar.
Sorrell has structured the S4 Capital deal to give himself a five-year window – from the point of S4 Capital’s first acquisition – to build the business and make his exit, by which point he is likely to be close to his 79th birthday.
Even then Sorrell, who has joked that “I see myself having a heart attack while doing this”, may find it hard to finally ride off into the sunset. “I would be dreadfully bored without it,” he has said, the idea of ever retiring a seemingly improbable prospect.
“Only when they shoot me,” he once said.