Jamie Hall, TNS’ chief executive for Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, said that the move would allow the firm, which will be globally branded as TNS, to attain “stronger scale and bench strength in emerging markets”.
Hall said that with respect to Asia, the merger was in keeping with TNS’ progressive strategy of expanding its offering to global accounts in emerging markets.
He noted that in particular, integration with Research International would boost new product development. The next step, he said, would be to “work out the best approach in each market”.
Eric Salama (pictured), chief executive of Kantar, added that the resulting scale of the company would act as a “platform to do great work for clients”, and would enable faster implementation of offers for global clients in the region.
The new company will be headed by former Research International chief executive Bob Meyers as chairman, and Pedro Ros as chief executive. Its presence in Asia will encompass Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, all ASEAN markets, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand.
WPP acquired TNS for $2 billion last October.