CVC Capital Partners and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) agree to jointly acquire its international group of agencies, BlueFocus International. They comprise of three main agency groups: We Are Social, fuseproject, and Vision7 International, as well as others.
This will create a digital-first, technology-enabled global advertising and marketing services group of companies. The new entity will now have more than 2,500 employees, across 12 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Brett Marchand, Vision7 International’s President and CEO, who will lead the new combined entity as its new CEO, said: “Our partnership with CVC and CDPQ, will allow us to advance our expansion and transformation strategy. This investment in geographic and capabilities expansion and next generation technology and data offering will provide leading-edge services for our clients and unparalleled development opportunities to our talented people all around the world.”
Scott Chen, Managing Director at CVC Capital Partners, added: "CVC is impressed by the opportunity for accelerated growth. We couldn’t pass up the unique opportunity to invest in this group of leading, tech-enabled agencies and we look forward to working with their talented management teams to take each of the businesses to the next level."
Kim Thomassin, Executive Vice-President and Head of Investments in Québec and Stewardship Investing, also added: "CDPQ is very proud to take part in this transaction that will enable the creation of a new global communications and marketing group. This investment aligns with our goal to support companies in their growth and globalization and will allow the company to carry out its ambitious development plan focusing on expanding in certain international markets."
