RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tihama Advertising and Public Relations Co. and UK-based WPP plc have delayed their agreement to create a Bahrain-based holding group via a merger until mid-2022. The Saudi company said the completion of transferring legal ownership and acquiring all necessary approvals will be done before June 30, instead of Dec. 31 last year. Under the deal, which was announced in July 2021, Tihama associate J. Walter Thompson MENA is merging with Wunderman MENA to create Wunderman Thompson MENA in Bahrain. Tihama will own 25 percent of the new Bahraini entity once the merger is complete, it said. This decision follows a global merger between J. Walter Thompson and Wunderman into Wunderman Thompson in 2018. Wunderman Thompson MENA is expected to have over 800 employees, with offices in Dubai, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia, along with Saudi Arabia. WPP already serves a wide range of global and local clients in the Middle East and has 100,000 employees worldwide with $17.9 billion in revenues, according to the statement.