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After Practia acquisition, Publicis Sapient plots its LatAm strategy

Bnamericas
After Practia acquisition, Publicis Sapient plots its LatAm strategy

Digital transformation consulting company Publicis Sapient is looking to stake its place in the fast-growing Latin American market.

The Boston-based company announced the acquisition of Argentina’s Practia in March.

“The first role that Practia plays is being the gateway to Latin America. Essentially, we went from having no presence in Latin America to now having significant presence [in the region]”, CEO Nigel Vaz (in photo) told reporters in Argentina last week.

Details about the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in Buenos Aires in 1995, Practia has developed digital strategies for 1,000 clients from retail to telecommunications, health and financial services. 

The company has 1,200 employees and offices in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Spain, and commercial presence in Uruguay and the US.

“Practia has an amazing amount of talent that allows us to build on, that can serve Sapient clients in North America in particular, but also potentially around the world,” Vaz said.

The CEO said that two main objectives are building capabilities in Latin America for clients outside the region and to start serving multinational customers with a presence in Latin America that are not currently Practia clients.

Some long-time clients of Publicis Sapient include Walmart, Audi, Adidas, Verizon, British Gas and Lufthansa. Practia has served companies like Telefónica, Techint, Tenaris, Cencosud, Santander, Claro and Banco de Chile

The company is not planning to make further acquisitions in the region. “Our belief is that right now Practia allows us the base on which to build. Historically our approach to growth has not been through acquisitions, we do very few acquisitions of companies, generally to establish a strategic footprint that allows us to build organically,” Vaz told BNamericas. 

OPPORTUNITIES

“The Latin American market is certainly leapfrogging many of the Western European markets in the adoption of digital,” he added. “They’re growing at one of the fastest rates in the world”.

It is estimated that the digital transformation market in Latin America will reach US$208bn in 2032 with a compound annual growth rate of 15.1%, according to SPER Market Research.

The Publicis Sapient CEO sees opportunities for industries to transform, especially in the areas of financial services, energy, retail and telecommunications. 

His top priorities in Latin America vary between organizations. “Organizations may have a gap in products, a gap in experience, a gap in engineering or a gap in data. Almost everyone has a gap in AI, because it’s just emerging,” Vaz said. 

In Latin America, Publicis Sapient said there are more gaps in engineering, data and AI and “how these are being connected.”

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