Photon Wins Recap Vote, Begins Agency Mergers

Shareholders of Australian-based Photon Group have approved the firm's $102.5m recapitalisation plan at a Sydney EGM on Friday. Two mergers of Photon agencies have already been announced and more are said to be imminent.

London-based corporate agency Likemind and branding agency Corporate Edge are to be merged, and operate under the Corporate Edge banner, led by Likemind head Nick Jefferson as CEO and by Corporate Edge managing partner Bridget Ruffell.

In Australia, strategic intelligence firms Naked and Bellamyhayden, which include strategy, communication and market research offerings, are to be merged under the Naked name with Bellamyhayden staff relocating to Naked's offices in Sydney and Melbourne. Bellamyhayden co-founder Phil Hayden will stay on as a member of the management team with Naked co-founders Mike Wilson and Adam Ferrier, but there are said to be six redundancies among his former colleagues including new arrival Sunita Gloster and Director of Digital Simon Corbett. An unconfirmed number of job losses are also expected at Naked.

According to Hayden, the two companies 'have similar offerings in and differentiations from the market, and highly successful track records. We felt combining made it possible to accelerate our respective growth plans and provide any client looking for a strategically driven offer with the best resource in the market.'

Photon says it has plans to open a Naked office in Singapore and expand the agency across the region. The agency has a combined staff of about sixty people.

Photon CEO Jeremy Philips (pictured) said more mergers were likely. MR agency The Leading Edge is said to be among some of the higher profile agencies which are unlikely to be merged at present.

The group is online at www.photongroup.com .