WPP firm acquires majority stake in Mongolian ad agency

WPP said it wanted to move into Mongolia to make itself more attractive to global clients.

The world's biggest advertising group, WPP, has extended its reach after one of its firms acquired a majority stake in a Mongolian ad agency.

The terms of the deal for WPP subsidiary Y&R to buy control of MCS Holding's Creative and Research Unit were not disclosed.

WPP said it wanted to move into Mongolia to make itself more attractive to global clients.

The group now operates in 111 countries.

"All the brands we work with are already there [in Ulan Bator]," Y&R Asia President Matthew Godfrey said. "If we want to partner globally with our clients we have to go where they are."

While the scale of the advertising market in Mongolia is relatively small compared with the rest of Asia, the market is growing fast, Mr Godfrey said.

The Mongolian economy in general is forecast to grow 9.5% in 2014, and 10% in 2015, according to the Asian Development Bank.

In 2013 one of the main contributors to growth was domestic consumption.

Over the next five years WPP wants at least 40% of revenues to come from "fast-growth markets and new media", it said.