RC Law Advised Newlink in the Acquisition of a Majority Interest in Globally (Spain)
RC Ras acted as U.S. and Spanish counsel of Newlink Group, a Miami based marketing, branding, corporate strategy and communication company, in its acquisition of a 60% interest in Globally Eventos y Comunicaciones, S.A., a P.R. and events organization group with offices in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. Globally is one of the top three P.R. companies in Spain by revenue (“Informe P.R. 2018”). The company will now operate under the name “Newlink Spain” and will become the lifestyle division of the Newlink Group, which already has a presence in Mexico, Dominican Republic, Peru and Argentina. The transaction involved an equity contribution, the purchase of the interests of the minority shareholders of Globally and the dilution of its majority shareholders. Globally’s shareholders were represented by Alemany Munoz de la Espada in Madrid, Spain. The transaction was closed in April of 2018.
On Monday afternoon took place the signing that makes official the acquisition of 60% of Globally by the American communication agency Newlink. In exclusive conversation for prnoticias, Sergio Roitberg, president and CEO of Newlink; and Olivier Vallecillo, until now CEO of Globally, shed the details of this operation and the consequences it has for both the Spanish and the American companies. Newlink Spain was born.
The purchase of the majority shareholding of Globally by Newlink has been a great surprise for the entire sector of Communication. And yet, Olivier Vallecillo admits that this maneuver has been taking place for a year.
According to PR Report 2018, Globally is in the top 3 of companies with the highest turnover in Spain. In this way, the economic argument, present in other merger processes, loses strength. For Globally, this process makes sense in that it “gives you the opportunity to gravitate around customers according to today’s times,” says Sergio Roitberg, who points out that with this process, Globally “ups the ante”, because now has the “opportunity to enter other processes that do not have to do only with communication”. In this way, the president of Newlink suggests that the development of their business will go beyond the Communication sector and that Globally will have a presence in them.
On behalf of Newlink, Roitberg confesses that they were more than two years doubting about what would be the best way to enter Europe. Finally, “Spain seemed the best place to establish our first step in Europe,” says Roitberg. Asked why they chose Globally to penetrate the Spanish and European markets, the CEO of Newlink believes that the Spanish company has a series of competencies that complement the services offered by Newlink. It is then when both companies reveal that Globally will now become the Lifestyle division of Newlink. However, the Spanish company will maintain its brand, “it would be a waste to give up the Globally brand,” says Sergio Roitberg.
With this operation Globally will not only operate in Spain, but will also operate in the South of the United States and Latin America.
Will there be changes in the Management structure?
Olivier Vallecillo explains that there will be no changes in the management of the company, although they will have to report to Miami. In this way Vallecillo goes from being the CEO of Globally, to being the CEO of Newlink Spain. In the same way, Carlos Serantes, until now president of Globally, becomes the president of Newlink Spain. From Globally also denied that the departments of Human Resources or finance are going to leave Madrid. They will continue in the Spanish capital in coordination with Miami.
“We want to give radically different solutions”
From Newlink they insist on the idea that times have changed, which means that the way of thinking must also change, because only then will there be “radically different solutions,” says Roitberg. According to the CEO of Newlink, there has been a paradigm shift, where the classic definition of the target has died: “now, people are empowered actors, and it is not just about communicating, but about connecting”, which in Newlink receives the name of “Orbital thinking”. Thus, he considers that the times in which the target was “a peephole that I have in the shotgun” and to which I shoot, must be overcome. Now all that, according to the manager, must be overcome.
And the best way to overcome this paradigm is to apply a methodology based on what Newlink calls “Shared Purpose”, consisting of looking for objectives that are between the particular interest of a company and the collective and social interest. And to achieve this goal they set up a “Global Strategy”, a collaborative methodology where they develop the strategic plan in line with the Communication department and the management of the company they work for.
New times for Globally
After the purchase of 60% of the shares of Globally by Newlink, the Spanish company will be immersed in this new methodology with the intention of “raising the discourse of the Communication”, according to Olivier Vallecillo. At the moment there will be no change in the Management, and Globally will become from now on the Lifestyle Division of Newlink, as a result of the birth of Newlink Spain.
Source: https://prnoticias.com
