The Hindu Business Line : WPP plans more acquisitions in India

WPP, among the world's largest communication services groups, is actively looking at widening its presence in India with the acquisition of niche agencies. Speaking to Business Line, Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of the £4.3-billion WPP, said that the company is in conversation with a number of agencies and would soon make an announcement.

Though Sir Martin refused to mention the names of the agencies, he said that the acquisition would be in non-traditional areas and not in advertising or media. "There is an increasing emphasis on non-traditional stuff which is being driven by technologies and by clients' desire and concern to exploit new areas, hence, we are committed to it and we believe that there is a tremendous opportunity."

He said that the Indian business of WPP is growing at around 13 per cent every year. "Our Indian business would rank easily as good as any of our other businesses across the world. We have a superb market position in India and the challenge for us would be to maintain that position." WPP owns a major stake in some of the top ad agencies such as JWT, O&M and media firm MindShare.

Sir Martin said that WPP is looking at getting one-third of its revenue from Asia. "If the Indian business continues to grow by 13 per cent and China by 22 per cent, we get our revenues just out of organic growth. We (then) don't need to make any acquisitions."

WPP's revenue in India this year, according to him, would be in the region of $170 million, two-thirds of which would be from advertising and media, while the rest would be from the non-traditional or niche agencies.

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