Publicis Groupe is reportedly considering a bid for a controlling stake in Cheil Worldwide.
The company is mulling an offer to take a 30 percent stake in Seoul-based Cheil Worldwide, a report in Bloomberg has said.
The stake would make it the company’s largest stakeholder. Cheil began as Samsung's in-house agency. Samsung currently owns around 25 percent of the agency.
A Publicis Groupe spokeswoman said, "We do not comment on rumours." Cheil Worldwide could not be reached for comment.
In November, Samsung Electronics consolidated its media planning and buying into Starcom Mediavest Group.
Samsung is also a top five client of Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett and Digitas LBi.
"Cheil’s fortunes are so closely tied to Samsung’s, so the last two years have been challenging for them," Greg Paull, principal at R3, told Campaign Asia-Pacific. "With over 1,000 people in China, they have built their strongest office outside of Korea, but Samsung have been hit from Xiaomi, Vivo ZTE and other local brands. Investments in Korean and Japanese agencies have historically been difficult for foreign holding groups. Time will tell whether this becomes the first successful case study."
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