FOCUS - EUROPE: FCB plans new media brand

True North is working on plans to create a new media brand in the UK by merging Banks Hoggins O'Shea/FCB's in-house media department with another media agency, and is now in negotiations to buy MBS Media. The plans represent the latest phase of Banks Hoggins/FCB's acquisition strategy to strengthen its UK operation, and the agency's chairman, John Banks, has put media to the top of the agenda. Discussions are understood to be at an advanced stage and would involve the purchase of the £82 million (about US$118 million) billing media agency, with a senior role in the new True North media operation for MBS's chairman, Glenn Burton. However, True North has also had meetings with other independent media companies. Banks said: "We are looking at strengthening our media proposition and that will involve acquisitions. We need to ensure we've got the right mix of media services." Combining the Banks Hoggins/FCB and MBS media portfolios would create a new media shop with billings of around £90 million, not enough to catapult FCB into the top 15 agencies. True North is also holding talks with Tempus over its joint venture media operation, BJK&E. Both partners are interested in taking full control of BJK&E - True North to pool with its other UK media plans, and Tempus to use as a platform for a more robust second-string network. Negotiations over the value of BJK&E (which has leaped 103 per cent in the latest ACNielsen MMS league tables) are on-going, although Teampus is keen to hold on to its BJK&E asset, and to buy out True North at the right price. Without the Tempus group resource in the form of CIA Medianetwork's buying muscle and backroom media services, BJK&E would struggle to offer the same level of service to its clients.

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