Goldman analyst Lisa Yang and team: "We view the timing of Mr Sorrell’s departure as a surprise given the relative lack of clarity over the succession planning process.
"We see a potential risk of disruption to WPP’s operations in the near-term given Mr Sorrell’s close involvement in the business for the past 33 years, especially at a critical time when WPP is renegotiating its relationship with its largest client Ford (4% of net sales) and defending a number of accounts including Mars, Jaguar, HSBC, Shell etc (representing 0.5% of net sales at risk).
"While we do not take a view on the likelihood of any outcome, we believe a new CEO could consider exploring options for underperforming assets such as a disposal downsizing, based on press reports (MediaPost). As we have previously discussed, we note that Kantar (15% of group net sales and PBIT) has been a notable drag on organic growth in recent years.
"We believe a new CEO could look to more significantly restructure the group, similar to Publicis’ reorganization since 2015 into four solution hubs."