ICM to be sold in deal worth up to £37.2m

ICM Research – one of the UK's best-known opinion pollsters – is to be acquired by marketing services group Creston in a deal worth up to £37.2m.

The acquisition is subject to the approval of Creston shareholders, who will be asked to vote on the proposal at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 15 May.

If the deal succeeds, ICM founders Nick Sparrow, Steve Parker and Kate Turner, and seven other shareholders – members of the agency's senior management team – will be paid more than £19.3m, plus a deferred closing payment of up to £1.1m for certain sellers.

A deferred sum of up to £16.7m will also be paid if the company reaches set profit targets by 31 March 2009.

Employees also stand to benefit from ICM's future performance, with up £1.1m earmarked for bonuses when and if the deferred sum becomes payable.

The acquisition includes ICM's telephone unit, ICM Direct, and its face-to-face fieldwork company, Fieldwork UK.

The ICM group achieved pre-tax profits of £2.5m on turnover of £14m last year.

The agency is best known for its political and opinion polling, even though this only accounts for 3% of its total work. ICM's market research clients include Vodafone, Wanadoo, Norwich Union, BT Mobile, O2 and Orange.

Managing director Nick Sparrow told Research that the agency had turned down a number of unsolicited approaches from various different organisations over the years. “Given the amount of consolidation in the industry that is not necessarily surprising,” he said.

“Every offer we received, we wondered whether it was the best offer for us in terms of culture and fit. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands to see if there was somebody out there who we wanted to be associated with.”

Creston already owns two market research agencies, CML Research and Marketing Sciences Group.

Sparrow said: “One of the reasons we were attracted to Creston was that they already had companies in this area of marketing services. Finding an owner with that experience was important to us.”

In a statement, Creston said the ICM acquisition would enable it to offer “further quantitative and qualitative market research services to existing and potential clients”.

The deal also creates “critical mass” for Creston's insight division, the company said.

Creston also announced today a proposed £38.3m acquisition of direct marketing agency Tullo Marshall Warren (TMW).

It also plans to raise more than £14m by issuing 9m new ordinary shares. Management will seek approval for the TMW deal and the share issue at the group's forthcoming EGM.