S4 Capital denies report of Dutch legal battle

S4 Capital, the advertising company of former WPP boss Martin Sorrell, has denied a report over the weekend stating that MediaMonks - the Dutch production it took over last year - is facing a legal battle in Holland.

According to the Sunday Times, former MediaMonks investor Rogier Schalken is taking the Dutch agency to court to establish whether he should have been entitled to some of the proceeds following its takeover by S4 last July. Schalken was said to want to find out whether MediaMonks was already in talks with suitors when he sold his stake in November 2017.

But S4 Capital dismissed the report as untrue, saying that the dispute is between former shareholders of MediaMonks.

"Any involvement of S4Capital will only be as a witness in any action," the company said in a statement.

"The complainant was not a founder of MediaMonks and was a 0.029% (or 29/1000ths of 1%) shareholder in MediaMonks up until November 2017, when he sold his shareholding. Discussions between S4 Capital and MediaMonks did not commence until well into 2018."

The company said the Sunday Times journalist was made "fully aware" of all these facts before he wrote the article but chose to ignore them.