APCON Council delays CASERS, Omnicom equity partnership deal
But for the delay in the constitution of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) Council by the Federal Government, CASERS, a multinational Nigerian IMC Group, would have probably rounded off its equity partnership negotiation with Omnicom, one of the world’s biggest marketing networks.
The negotiation which has been ongoing for four years has been stalled by the uncertainty created by the inability of government to recall the Udeme Ufot led Council which was sacked prematurely, or even reconstitute a new one as has been canvassed by some industry stakeholders.
“We wanted to have a better understanding of the situation at APCON, because at the moment it has no chairman. There is a little bit of uncertainty. So, we want to see the picture unfold completely before they make any move”.
However, Chairman of CASERS Group, Mr. Enyi Odigbo who made the disclosure recently in Lagos has assured that despite the delays, Omnicom was still interested in owning a stake in CASERS because of its desire to deepen its footprint in Africa. “Omnicom is still sure of coming because it is committed to expanding its footprint in Africa”, said Odigbo.
CASERS is the holding company for DDB Lagos and BBDO – two of Nigeria’s biggest advertising agencies – affiliated to Omnicom Worldwide.
The company is now seeking to take the relationship one step further by signing an equity based partnership.
According to the Chairman, a due diligence process which was started a few years back to kick start the new relationship has now been held up until the fog at the regulatory agency clears up.
Odigbo noted that this had to be done because the global network didn’t want to risk its investment. He lamented that the absence of a Council at APCON was bad for the industry.
“The absence of a Council Chairman at APCON is impeding businesses because there is uncertainty, people don’t know what to expect, they don’t know even whether the 25 percent will be removed and these people (Omnicom) are plain people, they want to have a clear picture of any situation before they invest money so that they don’t get into any trouble,” CASERS Chairman added.
APCON which is the government backed regulator and the policy driver of the industry has been without a Council since 2015 when the Udeme Ufot led Council was summarily sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Since then, there has been concerted efforts by the industry operators to make government either recall the last Council or put together a new one, all to no avail.
And without the council, APCON has been left practically grounded because of its inability to enforce advertising laws which is its core duty. More so, a reform process that was started by a past APCON Council, is now dormant. One of the main focus of the reform was the review of foreign ownership limit in local agencies. At the moment it is pegged at 25 percent, but there have been calls to raise the limit in order to inspire foreign direct investment in the industry and encourage competition.
CASERS, which was established as an advertising agency in 1987, later metamorphosed into DDB Lagos when it signed an affiliation with DDB Worldwide. CASERS was retained as the holding company.
The company has grown and now has subsidiaries that include DDB Lagos, BBDO, Capital Media, Activ8, Magenta and Nexus.
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