ADVERTISING AGENCY DDFHB is in discussions to join forces with McConnells Integrated, one of Ireland’s leading advertising agencies.

DDFH&B executive chairman Jim Donnelly would not comment last night on the nature of the discussions.

Sources close to the negotiations are hopeful that an agreement can be reached which will see DDFH&B running the McConnells agency as a separate stand-alone business under the McConnells brand together with MCM, the media buying division of McConnells. Pat Donnelly, a brother of Jim Donnelly, would run the business. Pat Donnelly was appointed head of media at McConnells Integrated in February.

Jim Donnelly is the largest shareholder in DDFH&B, with a 70 per cent stake. The remaining 30 per cent is held by the WPP-owned JWT Group. DDFH&B also holds a 50 per cent stake in the media buying agency Mindshare.

McConnells was acquired by AFA O’Meara two years ago in a deal believed to have been worth €15 million, propelling AFA principal Stuart Fogarty into the major league of Irish advertising.

AFA was founded in 1961 by Aubrey Fogarty, and his son Stuart took the agency out of the ranks of the also-rans by engineering a merger with peer Des O’Meara Partners in 2003.

But the merged entity has struggled in the last two years and has lost a number of large accounts, including Tesco and Danone. McConnells’ clients include AIB, BMW, CIÉ, ESB and IDA Ireland.

Latest filed accounts for McConnells Advertising Ltd show turnover of €36 million in 2008, down from €40 million a year earlier. The company’s pretax profit fell to €1.3 million from €4.8 million.

Sister company MCM Communications, the agency’s media buying arm, had turnover of €37 million in 2008. Both companies are subsidiaries of McConnells.