Korean advertising group Cheil Worldwide is seeking to tap deeper into the U.K. and U.S. markets with its acquisition of a British marketing agency.

Iris, a London-based affiliate of Cheil, said Tuesday it acquired a stake in U.K. agency Founded that works with clients including Uniqlo, Sony, Financial Times, WePay and Zipcar. 


The companies declined to disclose terms of the deal.

The deal highlights Cheil’s willingness to expand its oversea business and diversify the business portfolio from retail-focused marketing services to business-to-business sector.

“We decided to acquire the company as demand for B2B marketing service has been growing and competition over sales gets tougher with standardized production technology,” said Cheil Worldwide CEO Lim Dai-ki.

Established in 2012, Founded has seen average annual growth of 30 percent. The company reported sales of some $8.7 million and operating profit of $2.2 million in 2015.

Meanwhile, according to recent market rumors, Cheil -- which was launched in 1973 by Lee Byung-chull, founder of Samsung –- is likely to be sold to French ad giant Publicis Groupe as part of Samsung’s ongoing business restructuring.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)