LONDON (Brand Republic) - Havas Advertising is to take full control of the media planning and buying network, the Media Planning Group, in a deal that will see it swap Havas shares for the 55% of the company it does not own.
Under the terms of the agreement, which was approved by the Havas board of directors on January 19 2001, Havas will issue 28.8m new Havas Advertising shares and 鈧51m (£32.53m) to fund the deal. The deal will give the shareholders of Media Planning -- Rhodes Family, Grupo March, BBVA and BSCH -- 9.3% of the share capital of Havas Advertising.
Media Planning will continue to operate from its headquarters in Barcelona with a reduced board of directors and with Leopoldo Rodes Castane as chairman and Fernando Rodes Vila as chief executive officer. Rodes Vila has also joined the Havas board.
Alain de Pouzilhac, chairman and chief executive officer of Havas, said, "We are very excited about this new step in our relationship with Media Planning Group. Through almost two years of partnership with Media Planning Group, we have learned that we share a common philosophy and culture, and the same drive for excellence in servicing our clients.鈥
Media Planning was created in March 1999 out of the merger of two media buying agencies, Mediapolis and Media Planning.