Magnitude Of Modi’s Election Victory Has Provided Certainty: WPP’s CEO

The world's largest marketing communication group WPP's CEO Martin Sorrell has said that the scale of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election victory has added more certainty.

“The previous government was slowing down. India's image as a result was not as strong as it had been. As always, the election has cleared that out and the scale of Modi's success has added more certainty. It's dangerous to co-relate the two, but just like a strong brand means strong total shareholder return, a strong (country) brand means strong foreign direct investment like you see in China,” Sorrell said.

He also compared the euphoria around this election with that during the election of US President Barack Obama. However, he added, “Of course in America, it hasn't quite turned out as people expected. Here, expectations have been raised to a higher level. Now it's a question of delivering.”

He said that due to the slowdown, devaluation has been a major issue for domestic companies as they import commodities and have suffered because of an increase in cost. One of the things they cut back on is marketing. Talking about his company, he said, “Probably our revenues this year will be a record despite currency issues. In India, we have gone to $500 million from $400 million in the last year and a lot of that has come from acquisition.”

Speaking about acquisitions in India, he said, “We have done 13 transactions in 10 years and seven in the last five. The best acquisition we could make is to grow organically. We are not going to pay insane pricing. Probably three transactions have taken place in this market that have changed people's expectations, irrationally.”