SINGAPORE - Asia-based Eastwest Public Relations Group, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, is seeking to be integrated into an American or European firm to form an international outfit.
The company was founded in Singapore by Jim James in 1995, branching out to Beijing in 2006 and Bangalore in 2014.
James said the shifting landscape of the industry in the region meant that now was the right time to find a "strategic partner".
"Business in this region is now either global or local, it is not so much regional any more and that is something that has really changed in the 20 years I have been out here. The agencies and networks are now getting to be global too.
"Therefore, we have contracted a company to help us find a partner, which may be in the US and Europe, which wants to integrate an Asian agency into its existing operations," added James.
The agency, which has expanded its digital capabilities in recently years, initially focused on the broadcast industry, then broadened its client base to business-to-business technology and life sciences in Singapore, to education and automotive in China, and to real estate in India.
Early clients included Quantel in digital graphics, and Tegic, the inventors of predictive text entry in 1997. Yahoo shopping, Inmarsat satellite telecommunications, ECA International, Sony Pictures, Microsoft, Philips Consumer Electronics, RIM and Nortel also helped sustain and grow the agency.
After opening in China, the firm supported AVNET on a regional basis, ECI Telecom, Sciex and latterly the Universities of York and Kent along with AGA and Morgan Motor Company. The India office quickly acquired clients including IEEE, which was also a China client, Pubmatic, Tenneco and Tamara Coorg.
James added: "We are really looking for a strategic partner, an investor because we have done phase one, which was getting started into Singapore, we have done phase two by becoming regional and phase three is to become part of an international network."
