By Pav Jordan
TORONTO (Reuters) - The advertising agency Cossette Inc
Cosmos has said it is willing to pay C$8.10 a share, or about C$135.3 million (US$126.4 million), to buy Cossette, compared with the C$7.87 a share, or C$131 million (US$122.4 million), that Mill Road has offered.
A higher offer would raise the price tag on Quebec City-based Cossette for a fourth time since July.
Cosmos, based in Montreal, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
A takeover battle has raged around Cossette since July, when Cosmos, whose investors include two founders of the ad agency, made a first bid at C$4.95 a share, which was rejected as too low.
Cossette is small by international standards -- ranked about 23rd globally -- but it is Canada's largest homegrown shop, expanding from a tiny company in the early 1970s to a transnational with Canadian clients like McDonald's, Bell Canada, General Motors and Coca-Cola.
Cossette's allure includes a strong presence in the French-speaking province of Quebec, a difficult market to crack for foreign companies.
It also has assets or offices in the United Kingdom, where it set up in 2003, as well as in the United States and China.
Cosmos, which is being advised by Genuity Capital Markets, controls 18.7 percent of Cossette. It also has lock-up agreements with Bergundy Asset Management, which holds 11.1 percent, and Beutel Goodman & Co, with 7.6 percent of the shares.
Cosmos said its offer earlier this week was fully financed, but it was conditional on due diligence and on receiving access to Cossette's virtual data room after it was barred from it in July, following its first hostile bid.
Cossette is being advised by BMO Capital Markets
($1=$1.07 Canadian)
(Reporting by Pav Jordan; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by Rob Wilson and Carol Bishopric)
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