A statement issued by the Martin Sorrell-controlled advertising major states that the equity interest has been sold to Publicis Groupe SA at a price of £75 million in accordance with Publicis Groupe SA's contractual obligation. Publicis already has a 75 per cent stake and had been actively involved in the bid for Cordiant. The company intended to transform the acquisition into an independent top-ranked media buying house.

WPP, through Cordiant, currently retains equity interests in Zenith franchises in nine countries, covering Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indo-China, Argentina, Greece, Norway, India, Australia and Lebanon, and has trading relationships in another 14 markets where Zenith has franchises.

The statement also claims that ZenithOptimedia's audited revenues and post-tax profits for 2002 were £148m and £13m respectively. Recent disposals by Cordiant in the last two months now totals to £160m. This compares with a pre-disposal net debt level of £235m.

In India, WPP already has a media independent company WPP Marketing and Communications (WPP Media) with its various divisions such as MindShare, Maximise, BroadMind, ATG amongst others. Publicis group has media independent units such as Starcom Media in India.