Bates Asia buys majority stake in Sercon

Bates Asia group has picked up a majority stake in marketing services company Sercon. Sercon will now be integrated with 141 Worldwide and the new agency 141 Sercon.

The new agency will focus on below the line activities.

Vijay Singh, MD, Sercon, would be leading the operations of the merged entity along with Subhash Kamath, CEO, Bates Enterprise.

Jeffrey Yu, president, Bates Asia, said, "Marketing service is our key focus area for the Bates Asia group and we are totally committed to building the 141 brands across the region. India is a critical market for us and will be one of our super hubs.

"Bringing Sercon into the family will jump start our plans to make '141' one of the most powerful marketing services brands in the country. Of course, this is subject to obtaining necessary government and other regulatory approvals," he added.

Singh said, "While both agencies had been experiencing high growth rates for the past few years, the synergistic entity, post-merger, will ensure that the best global marketing practices and tools are supported by robust execution abilities on ground across Asia. 141 Sercon will be the 'glocal' agency of choice for brand managers."

Sercon, which was established in 1996, has worked with companies such as Apple, Oracle Software, Asian Paints and L'oreal.

It has a 120 member team with operations across the major cities in India and South-East Asia.