Havas Group has finalised the deal to acquire a 51% stake in the largest Baltics-based communications group, formed by the merge of the Estonian Idea and Lithuanian Publicum groups.

The merged group will operate under the name Havas Baltics and represent the Havas Group in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

Havas Baltics is made up of 20 companies that between them provide media planning, creative, public relations, digital marketing and other communications services.

More than 250 talents work in the Baltics agencies with clients such as Hyundai, JDE, Samsung, Philip Morris, Mars, Tele2, GSK, LIDL, Coca-Cola, Neste, Estrella, Kesko Senukai. Aggregate turnover of the Baltics group exceeded EUR 50 million last year.

After the acquisition, Ricardas Jarmalavicius and Mark Eikner, managing directors and partners of the Publicum and Idea groups respectively, will continue activities in the management and supervisory boards of Havas Baltics.

Yannick Bolloré, Chairman and CEO Havas Group comments: “I am delighted that Havas is now officially represented in the Baltics by its own agencies. We have full confidence in our local managers and current structure of the newly formed group. We will provide every kind of support to help grow the business, for example through Havas’ own social, mobile and digital platforms, and through our parent company Vivendi’s assets such as Canal+ and Universal Music. This will provide our Baltic teams with new opportunities and power to expand their networks.”

“Havas’ readiness to integrate fully into the Baltic market is a great compliment to our entire team. It means that our long-term work has attracted the attention and trust of a strong global player,” commented Mark Eikner, Partner of Havas Baltics.

“In recent years, such investments have not been made in the Baltics in our field. We believe Havas’ contribution will give a boost to the development of our products, services and, especially, our technology. In this manner we can make strides forward, for example, in the digital world, and provide our customers with world-class solutions”, said Ricardas Jarmalavicius, Partner of Havas Baltics.