The finance director of M&C Saatchi is in talks to join a private equity-backed rival, a move that could undermine the London-listed advertising agency’s ability to fend off an unsolicited takeover bid.

Sky News has learnt that Mickey Kalifa, who has been at M&C for just under three years, has been approached about a senior role at Dept, a digital agency based in Amsterdam.

The status of the discussions between Mr Kalifa and Dept were unclear on Monday evening, although one source said that he had not tendered his resignation to the board of his current employer.

It emerged last week that M&C, whose founders were responsible for some of Britain’s most famous advertising campaigns, had received a bid approach from AdvancedAdvT, a vehicle headed by Vin Murria, one of Britain’s most successful technology entrepreneurs.

The situation has been complicated by the fact that Ms Murria is also M&C’s deputy chair and holds a sizeable minority stake in the business – as does AdvancedAdvT.

In aggregate, those two parties own more than 20% of the ad agency, which has a market value of just over £220m.

AdvancedAdvT is backed by Marwyn, a serial creator of cash shells and orchestrator of takeovers of companies including WeBuyAnyCar-owner BCA Marketplace and Entertainment One, the owner of Peppa Pig.

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The vehicle led by Ms Murria has argued that combining it with M&C would enable the creation of a data, analytics and digitally focused marketing services business that would harness the creative talents of M&C’s workforce more effectively.

M&C has not formally rejected the approach but has cast doubt on its merits.

A spokesman for M&C declined to comment on Monday evening.

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