Bates buys majority stake in Sercon

This is another BTL acquisition story. Bates Enterprise, which last year had acquired Enterprise-Nexus, has acquired a majority stake in Sercon, an Indian marketing services company with presence in India and South East Asia and catering mainly to IT clients, such as Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Nortel Networks and McAfee, offering them services on customer relationship management and channel marketing. Sercon will be integrated into 141 Worldwide, the below-the-line agency of Bates Enterprise. The joint entity will be called 141 Sercon. It has also acquired marketing a Chinese services company CSSP Jochnic, providing marketing solutions to consumer goods companies in China. Bates’ Indian operations have become the largest in the Bates network in Asia. Bates had set up its Indian operations two years ago and has grown in the region through acquisitions. The Sercon acquisiton and its proposed merger with advertising agency David will make Bates even bigger.

Read The Economic Times and Business Standard for more details.

BTL-major IMS Group about to acquire 66% in Encompass

UK-based IMS Group, a $160 mn below-the-line (BTL) marketing services major, is negotiating to acquire a 66% stake in event management and promotions firm, Encompass, for Rs 36-45 crore. Encompass has been promoted by Roshan Abbas. The acquisition would be through its recently acquired Indian subsidiary IMS-Candid Marketing. This would be its second acquisition in India, after its acquisition of 66% stake in Candid for Rs 23 crore. BTL marketing involves activities such as promotions, internet, mobile marketing, exhibitions, point-of-purchase and retail merchandising; analysts gauge the BTL market to be around Rs. 10, 000 crores. The BTL marketing space in India is seeing major movements of late. Last year, Publicis bought 60% in Delhi-based marketing services company, Solutions. Similarly, Mudra Communications picked up 74% in Kidstuff Marketing.

Read The Economic Times for more details.