BlueFocus, which came close to selling to UK’s Huntsworth Group after a fierce bidding war last year, confirmed it had plans to list on the Chinese stock market. “But it is still a plan at this stage,” said BlueFocus CEO Oscar Zhao (pictured). “We think in China there is a big marketplace, and we think we can become like WPP and Omnicom in China.”
Meanwhile, D&S Consulting president Huang Xiaochuan said that his decision to list rather than sell was based on the incompatibility between local and international business culture. “A global business philosophy does not necessarily win in China,” said Huang. “Right now, we can see that local companies have better performance than international firms.”
China’s PR market is growing at approximately one-third each year, and is thought to total approximately US$1.5 billion currently.
