Havas acquires majority stake in Germany’s Gauly Advisors

Havas has acquired a majority stake in Gauly Advisors, a Germany-based corporate and financial communications firm, which will now become part of H/Advisors, Havas’s global strategic communications consultancy.

Founded in 2012, Gauly Advisors provides strategic and financial communications counsel to listed and privately held companies, including large corporations and SMEs. The firm will now operate as H/Advisors Gauly.

Gauly’s management team, Marcus Brans, Alexander Cordes, Sandra Fabian, Vanessa Haumberger, Helge Hoffmeister, and Andreas Martin, will retain an equity stake and continue to lead the firm. The acquisition is expected to strengthen the consultancy's presence in Germany and the DACH region, alongside its existing agency H/Advisors Deekeling Arndt, expanding its work in corporate communications, public affairs, crisis management, and change strategy.

Together, the consultancy firm and the agency will cover key German cities, including Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin, and collaborate with the consultancy firm’s teams in Zurich, Vienna, and Brussels for regional and EU-wide projects.

Commenting on the acquisition, Yannick Bolloré, Chief Executive Officer, Havas, said: “H/Advisors has become a key pillar of Havas’s global strategy, reflecting our conviction that strategic communication is indispensable to leadership, trust, and performance. I am delighted to welcome the talented team at Gauly to the Havas family. Their addition reinforces our ambition to build a truly global consultancy capable of guiding clients through the most complex reputational and business challenges.”

Stéphane Fouks, Executive Chairman of H/Advisors and Executive Vice President of Havas, added, “The acquisition of a majority stake in Gauly reflects what defines H/Advisors: collaboration, creativity, and a commitment to making an impact. Together with H/Advisors Deekeling Arndt, Hirzel.Neef.Schmid.Konsulenten, and Pantarhei, it strengthens our leadership across Germany and the DACH region, reinforces our leadership in Europe, and supports our ambition to build a bold, modern, and European-rooted strategic communications consultancy for a changing world.”

Alexander Cordes, on behalf of the Managing Partners of Gauly, said, “We are thrilled to be joining H/Advisors. Over the years, we have built a strong partnership founded on shared values, collaborative culture, and high standards. Moving from a trusted partnership to full membership within H/Advisors is a natural next step in Gauly’s journey. It allows us to remain an owner-managed, entrepreneurial, and quality-driven consultancy deeply rooted in the DACH region, while giving our clients and teams access to global reach and world-class expertise through our 1,500 new colleagues across the H/Advisors organisation.”