If the deal closes, Red Cell will end up with around 49 per cent of Chime Communications' HHCL. In return, Lord Bell's Chime will get a stake of less than 20 per cent in Red Cell.
There will be no cash involved in the deal. WPP currently owns a 20.4 per cent stake in Chime.
Red Cell, which was set up in January 2001 and linked the former Conquest European network with Singapore's Batey Advertising and Seattle's Cole & Weber, will relocate its London staff to HHCL's offices. WPP recently bought the New York hotshop Berlin Cameron, and has been seeking a comparable agency in London to weld into the Red Cell network.
The combined London agency will be run by the HHCL chairman and chief executive, Simon Burridge, and the managing director, Nick Howarth.
Meanwhile, the Roose restructure will see the founder and chief executive, Ted Roose, 62, gradually relinquishing control of the day-to-day running of the agency, although he will retain the title of chairman.
HHCL's creative director, Jay Pond-Jones, is moving to Roose as the creative director and Ed Wills, Roose's joint managing director, has been promoted to chief executive. Wills' brief is to work more closely with other Chime agencies. The other joint managing director, Angus Fear, becomes the managing director in the restructure.
Pond-Jones replaces Nick Fordham, who steps down but will remain at the agency. Pond-Jones' career spans a number of agencies including Mother, which he founded, and GGT.
The restructure follows a difficult year for Roose, which lost its place on the Reckitt Benckiser roster. The agency is also currently defending its Velvet toilet tissue account in a pitch called by the brand's owner, SCA Products.
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