The $35.1 bilion tie-up of both advertising icons Omnicom (OMC.N) and Publicis (PUBP.PA), the world's second and third-largest advertising groups respectively, would be pushed to mid-2014 at the latest, as announced on Thursday.
Chief Executives John Wren (Omnicom) and Maurice Levy (Publicis) both stated out that the two companies would be missing the original timetable which was scheduled to merge by the end of March. Both are waiting for regulatory approvals which includes a nod from the European Union and Russia.
Once given the go ahead, the new board comprising both entities will meet to discuss about returning additional earnings to shareholders on top of the committed dividend payout ratio of 35 percent once the board has taken care of their pending obligations.
"We have already committed publicly to a dividend of 35 percent ... and that will be done. And when the new board gets together we'll sit down and we'll discuss with the new board how we're going to return the remainder of the earnings to the shareholders, after we've taken care of what our needs are," Wren said.
Upon such a rare merger, the combined U.S and French entity would be leapfrogging Britain's WPP, which is currently the world's biggest group. The new group would also begin acquisition of firms although unlike before, they would focus this time on returning more cash to shareholders than what has already been committed.
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