Press reports (here’s one) out of India indicate that both Publicis and Havas are talking separately with the owner of independent company Madison World to acquire a majority stake in its ad agency business. Capabilities include media, creative, sports marketing and PR.

Madison World was created 37 years ago by Sam Balsara, who the reports say is interested in selling to a global holding company to help drive further growth at the agency. The reports also speculate on an added urgency for Publicis and Havas to expand in India given the pending acquisition of Interpublic by Omnicom. 

The agency’s gross billings are reportedly about $585 million. Agencies in India still charge a commission rate of between 15% and 20% for media placements, according to the reports. 

India is of strategic importance to all the major holding groups—it's the eighth largest ad market globally with $18.5 billion in expenditures last year according to GroupM estimates. Spending growth this year is estimated at more than 9%. 

The reports follow news out of India last week that the county’s Competition Commission of India has undertaken a price-fixing investigation involving units of ad groups within Publicis, Interpublic, WPP’s GroupM, Dentsu as well as large media sellers in the country.