Matthew Freud Buys Stake in YouGov

In London, Freud Communications founder Matthew Freud has bought a 3.23% share in online polling specialist YouGov for approximately £2.26m.

YouGov was co-founded by Stephan Shakespeare and Nadhim Zahawi in 2000. Zahawi relinquished his directorship after he was elected to parliament during the last election. In October last year the company reported adjusted operating profits of £5.3m.

Freud has been buying small stakes in other companies such as advertising gurus M&C Saatchi and marcomms company the Engine Group. The YouGov investment is in a personal capacity rather than on behalf of Freud Communications, and makes Freud one of the largest shareholders in the company apart from the current directors.

As well as political polling, YouGov runs brand awareness and tracking studies and conducts social media monitoring via its online communities - all of which would be of interest to Freud, both in his PR capacity and as an adviser to and friend of the current Prime Minister.

In April last year Freud bought back control of Freud Communications (which was valued at that time at more than £75m) from the Publicis Groupe - the second time he has sold and bought back the company.

Web site: www.freud.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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