Edipresse Asia announces joint venture with Mediascope’s Marzban Patel

As part of its continuing expansion, Asia-Pacific’s leading luxury lifestyle media group, Edipresse Asia Ltd, a subsidiary of the Switzerland-based Edipresse Group, has announced a joint venture agreement with media veteran and entrepreneur Marzban Patel. The new entity will be called Edipresse India.

Patel has founded and run many successful media verticals in India, including the country’s foremost international media sales company and the first digital media sales enterprise. He also created one of India’s top custom publishing and sales businesses, which produces international quality luxury and lifestyle magazines for a fast expanding set of Indian and multinational clients, including top hospitality, financial services and airline companies as well as industry associations and Government bodies.

The joint venture represents the latest step in Edipresse Asia strategy to expand its leadership position in the luxury media segment in Asia.

Barrie C Goodridge, CEO, Edipresse Asia, said, “Having a presence in India is a critical part of our core objective of growing our business in Asia. Through the joint venture with Marzban Patel, we have a unique opportunity to become a powerful and important player in high-end lifestyle publishing.”

Patel, Chairman, Mediascope Group, said, “We are very excited to be partnering with Edipresse and hope to launch a set of multimedia products of the kind India has never seen. This collaboration will offer high-quality publications and content to readers and advertisers around the nation. With the support and resources of Edipresse, we target to launch our first publication in 2009, with additional titles to quickly follow.”

In order to cope with the expansion and upcoming developments, the new company will be recruiting local and international publishing expertise.