Kommersant 27/03/99

The Russian Imageland Will Become International

Imageland PR announced that since April 1999 it will exclusively represent interests of one of the top five international PR networks, Edelman PR Worldwide, in Russia.

Negotiations about the future partnership started last May. But event after August 17 Edelman did not drop the idea: the company considers emerging markets a more prospective way to go. According to Imageland's General Director, Veronica Moiseeva, the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections incite the foreign PR interest toward the Russian market. The international company intends to acquire the Russian Agency in future. It was initially supposed that Imageland's reins will very soon be taken over by Edelman. But the August financial crisis, forced Edelman take the purchase deal more seriously, Ms. Moiseeva said. Kommersant sources say Imageland will become full ownership of Edelman in 3 or 4 years (though they at Imageland say Edelman will acquire only a minority stake). Having turned fully into Edelman, the now Russian Imageland will represent the network's interests in Russia and CIS, orchestrate some certain campaigns in the Western Europe on behalf of Edelman, serve Edelman's clients and PR some of the Russian businesses in 32 countries of the world.

Olga Likhina