Millward Brown set to merge with ACSR

<P>WPP has inked a deal to take over Chinese market research firm All China Strategic Research (ACSR). </P> <P><br><br><BR>Pending approval from Chinese authorities, WPP plans to merge ACSR with Millward Brown, a move that would make the combined entity one of the five largest research companies in the country. ACSR, one of China's oldest research companies, has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with a data collection network across urban and rural China. The group anticipates the deal will be completed in August.</P> <P><br><br><BR>Andreas Sperling, Millward Brown's Asia-Pacific CEO, said the takeover would give Millward Brown its own fieldforce in China for the first time, enabling greater coverage and tighter quality controls that could bring research costs down. "We did studies (in tier three and tier four cities) before, but there was always a huge risk that the data quality was not what we expected," he said.</P> <P><br><br><BR>ACSR chairman and president Yuxian Gao will become chairman of the new company, Millward Brown ACSR, while Millward Brown's Greater China MD Deepender Rana will become MD. Other senior appointments have yet to be finalised, Sperling added.</P> <P><br><br><BR>Sperling said he also hoped the merger would help dispel Millward Brown's image as a foreign company in China.  "We have local clients, but we have never been perceived as a local company," he said.<BR></P>