WPP, the advertising group behind Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather, is planning to acquire controlling stakes in as many as five advertising and public relations companies in Greater China.

The British group is hoping to double its workforce to about 2,000 over the next three years by investing in companies in Najing, Guangdong, Chengdu and Hainan.

“This is a continuation of (WPP’s) strategy of building a Chinese network,” said one person familiar with the company. The expansion is expected to include a focus on the healthcare sector and will involve Grey Global, the New York advertising group that WPP agreed to buy last year for £845 million.

Although China’s advertising market is wildly fragmented the world’s most populous nation is already WPP’s fifth largest market. The company already claims to lead the market in China with a 15 per cent share, 50 per cent larger than its next rival. In Greater China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, its group revenues are estimated at about $250 million (£132 million).

WPP’s strategy is to expand its business in developing countries in which it is already the market leader, such as the so-called Bric countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Last October the company acquired Oracle Market Research, one of the largest independent businesses of its kind in China. Oracle employs 130 people and had revenues last year of HK$65 million (£4.6 million).

WPP has 13 joint ventures and is the only Western company with a direct share in a Chinese advertising agency, Shanghai Advertising Corporation, with a 15 per cent stake.

Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP’s chief executive, recently said that WPP had enjoyed “a number of wins (in China) recently of great significance that will become public shortly”.

Sir Martin recently described China as “the fastest growing, most interesting, least bureaucratic place around”.

Marketing Western products in China has, however, proven to be tricky, requiring far more sensitivity to local culture.

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