• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 2, 2012

WPP’s GroupM has expanded its operation in the rapidly growing South Korea market with the acquisition of media planning and buying agency Alchemedia.

Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed, but GroupM said the Korean shop had revenues last year of around $1.2 million and gross assets of nearly $9 million.

GroupM, The WPP media management arm said that Alchemedia would be merged into GroupM Korea and that the combined company’s client roster would include automaker Audi, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, LG, Procter & Gamble, Red Bull and others.

The seller is GIIR, one of South Korea's largest advertising and marketing firms. WPP has had ties to GIIR for about a decade. The Dublin-based holding company owns a minority stake in GIIR through its Cavendish Square investment company.

Client LG also holds a minority stake in GIIR. Those ties go back further. GIIR creative agency HS Ad was established in 1964 as LG’s in-house ad agency. Later, it was spun off as a separate entity. Both WPP and LG have representatives on the GIIR board.

Alchemedia was founded in 2004 and is based in Seoul.

GroupM has targeted Korea as one of the “fast growing and important markets,” in the global ad economy. The firm is forecasting 6.5% ad spending growth for the country this year to about $9 billion.

Currently, WPP companies collectively employ 1,400 people in South Korea and generate annual revenues there of more than $200 million. 

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