United States advertising giant Omnicom Group will take a minority stake in a leading Chinese marketing service provider to strengthen its presence in China, where the advertising market has registered a roughly 20 percent annual growth in the past three years.

Beijing-based Shunya Communications Group, which provides advertising, event planning and public relation services for Deusche Bank AG, Beijing Hyundai Motor and Ford Motor in China, will be 40 percent owned by BBDO Worldwide, a subsidiary of Omnicom, according to Shunya.

Both parties refused to disclose any financial terms.

Shunya's four principal operating agencies - Shunya International Ad Inc, Shunya Profuture Events Marketing Inc, Shunya International PR Inc and Shunya PR Inc - will become a part of Omnicom's BBDO, Proximity, Porter Novelli and Pleon, respectively, pending on regulatory approval, according to a statement from New York-based Omnicom, the world's largest advertising company.

But Shunya will run independently and maintain all its four divisions' names, and the deal involves no joint ventures to be set up.

"China is vitally important to all of our worldwide clients. BBDO always commits to have a disproportionate share of talent available to our clients in every market," said Andrew Robertson, chief executive officer of BBDO, in a statement.

(Shanghai Daily January 8, 2008)