Synovate on lookout for buyouts in India

Market research firm Synovate, part of the Aegis Group Plc, is on the lookout for acquisition opportunities in India.

Tim Balbirnie , CEO -Asia, Synovate, said the company was looking for firms with strengths in specialist areas such as automobiles, healthcare and loyalty apart from advanced analytics.

"Globally, we are the fastest inorganically growing company, and we would like to grow our business in India similarly," said Balbirnie.

The firm also plans to explore opportunities in the retail audit space in India at a later stage. Company executives said this was one reason why the company lags behind market leader AC Nielsen here.

Balbirnie said globally the company did similar retail audits in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, among other markets.

"This is done through Aztec, an Australian firm the group acquired last year. Retail audit is done using scanned data and we would look at introducing it here at a later date," said Balbirnie.

Alok Shanker, managing director, Synovate India, said to be able to use the audit effectively in India, modern retail would still need to become more widespread and it would still be a few years before this service could be launched in India.

Within Asia, the company claims that while China is its fastest growing market, India has managed to double its revenues over the last two years.

Balbirnie said that the company was looking at increasing its headcount in India and plans to hire people not only with a research background but also people from the client side, so as to better cater to the customers needs.

"The focus is to grow the business in India and improve the quality of research here," he said. Balbirnie said the company's focus on customised research along product development was something no other agency in India offers at present.

This, coupled with sales forecasting to gauge the sales potential of different products, is something that has worked to the company's advantage in attracting and retaining clients.

Today, product development contributes about 35 per cent to the company's revenues. In the syndicated research across sectors, 60 per cent is in consumer goods, with the balance being telecom, financial services and other areas.

Globally, the company is growing at 12 per cent with a large part of the growth coming from the developing markets. For Synovate, the emerging markets contribute 21 per cent to its total revenue.