Finn Partners acquires SPAG to expand health practice in Asia

Finn Partners is acquiring health communication and marketing agency SPAG, to expand its healthcare operations and its footprint in Asia. Headquartered in Asia, with multiple offices in India alongside Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, SPAG helps biopharma companies, health providers and health trade associations with marketing and communications. 

Finn Partners claims the deal strengthens its position as home to one of the world's largest independent health practices, with nearly $50 million in revenues, while SPAG will now benefit from more global service capabilities and client offerings. 

With the acquisition, SPAG founder and managing partner Aman Gupta will now lead Finn's health practice throughout Asia as a managing partner at Finn, working closely with global health practice leaders Gil Bashe and Fern Lazar. SPAG's co-founder, Shivani Gupta, also joins Finn as a managing partner, responsible for the health practice's culture and brand reputation. Both become members of the agency's global health practice leadership team.

SPAG Asia will now be branded as 'SPAG, a Finn Partners company' and will be part of the Finn Asian region, overseen by Finn's founding partner Howard Solomon. Its addition means Finn will have a total global staff of more than 1300 employees, with more than 150 in Asia and 275 devoted to health. The agency says there will be no staff redundancies and no client conflicts exist. 

"Joining Finn enables us to bring additional cutting-edge services, geographic reach, and health-sector and digital expertise to our clients," said Aman Gupta. "During the past year, SPAG and Finn worked side-by-side to support client efforts, and this new relationship – based on shared values – expands our services capabilities and opens doors to wonderful staff opportunities and knowledge-sharing around health developments and best practices.”

"Asia is paving the way for global health innovation, and clients eager to engage can generate greater value by taking bold, strategic action in the region,” said Peter Finn, CEO and founding managing partner, Finn Partners. “This infusion of health-sector talent in Asia – where we already have great strength in technology and travel in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore – builds on our collaborative approach to growth."

(This article first appeared on Campaign Asia)