Sir Martin Sorrell's S4Capital has for the second time delayed announcing its annual results for 2021.
Shares in the digital first advertising group slumped 35.7% to 310 pence, wiping almost £1 billion from the market capitalisationof the group.
The company says PwC informed S4 Capital it couldn't complete the work in time.
The announcement to the London Stock Exchange: "S4 Capital plc (SFOR.L) announces that at 2:30pm today (30 March 2022) our auditors, PwC informed us that they were unable to complete the work necessary for S4 Capital to release the Preliminary Statement tomorrow morning.
"As a result, the Company will release its Preliminary Results for 2021 as soon as PwC have completed their work. The Company believes that the results for 2021 remain within the range of market expectations and continued to trade strongly in the first two months of 2022."
In its half year results, like-for-like billings were up 12.7% to £260.4 million. Revenue was £141.3 million, up 6.9% like-for-like. Gross profit of £124.0 million was up 12.2% like-for-like.
Chairman Sir Martin said then: “These results confirm that S4 Capital is currently in a growth sweetspot and that its digital only, faster, better, cheaper, unitary, holy trinity model, which combines first party data with digital content, data and digital media, is migrating from brand awareness and trial to conversion at scale.
“After less than two years as a listed company and with a market capitalisation of around $US2.5 billion, which is well in to the top 200 FTSE companies, we are now in a position to build stronger value-adding relationships with tech, healthcare, financial and FMCG clients amongst others and with a strong and liquid balance sheet in a great financial place to expand through further combinations, which will add to our data, content, digital media and technological capabilities.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.