Kantar Owners Bain, WPP Plan Break Up and Sale of Group, FT Says

Shiyin Chen

Sun, Mar 9, 2025, 11:40 AM 1 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Bain Capital and WPP Plc are planning to break up and sell market research company Kantar Group, the Financial Times reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

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The owners had previously been considering an initial public offering for the company but are now shifting strategy amid a difficult time for new floats, the newspaper said. They are now seeking to sell Kantar’s large divisions. Its fastest-growing unit, a Chicago-based consumer and market intelligence company called Numerator, could be sold as soon as this year, the report cited the people as saying.

Kantar in January merged Numerator with its Worldpanel division to form a global consumer data company, according to the FT. The company has already sold off some businesses, offloading in January its media division to private equity group H.I.G Capital.

Bain, WPP and Kantar declined to comment to the FT.

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