Bids sought for Kantar

A series of buyout funds including US firms Advent and Blackstone are in talks with advertising group WPP to explore bids for a majority stake in its data analytics unit Kantar.

The sale, led by Goldman Sachs, may value Kantar at up to £3.5bn, but some private equity investors are fretting over the decline in profits and revenues that the business has suffered in recent years.