Chime to secure former trade minister Lord Davies It is moving its focus away from a dependence on PR and towards sports marketing and VCCP, its advertising agency, which works with brands including Comparethemarket.com, O2 and Coors. Chime's largest shareholder is WPP, the advertising giant led by Sir Martin Sorrell. Chime shareholders approved the £19.6m management buy-out of Bell Pottinger in June despite opposition from WPP. The dispute pitted Lord Bell against his former Saatchi & Saatchi colleague Mr Sorrell, who said the terms of the deal did not "make sense." However, investors welcomed the sale, with analysts arguing Chime had secured a good price for "a business that has attracted considerable adverse commentary" and that the deal would allow Chime to forget an "ongoing PR distraction." Bell Pottinger had seen sales and profits fall after it endured a raft of negative publicity over allegations that it offered rogue regimes access to UK politicians and that it inappropriately 'manipulated" clients" Wikipedia entries. The buy-out effectively ended a relationship that Lord Bell had held with Chime for more than 20 years and saw him resume control, along with Piers Pottinger, of the PR agency they founded in the 1980s. The sale of Bell Pottinger saw Chime's pre-tax profit fall to £6.7m for the six months to June, compared to £9m for the same period last year. Chime Communications chief executive Christopher Satterthwaite denied that Lord Davies was the only candidate for the role. "We're in the middle of a search and there are lots of people on the list," he said.