Shorts

Infomatin, the French daily newspaper, will cease publication this week. The paper was reported to have lost FF60m (7.7m) last year and its circulation has fallen from 360,000 at its launch two years ago to about 60,000.

Fraud at Ogilvy & Mather’s French operation has cost the company about FF100m (13.3m). It was perpetrated between 1988 and 1991 by an accountant who bought 400 cars and then sold them, bypassing company books. It is understood that O&M’s insurance company will foot the bill and represent the agency in court.

EURO RSCG plans to open an office in Japan to handle the local needs of its European client, Philips (right). The agency will first install a representative in the offices of agency I&S Corp, which handles the business.

FCB has beaten four agencies to secure the FF10m (1.3m) Siemens account in France.

The agency’s brief is to reposi-tion the brand by developing communications for the local market.

Prisma Presse and Filipacchi Medias have emerged as the strongest contenders during the second round of offers to take over the interests of ailing French publishing group VSD.

Jung von Matt, the Hamburg agency, has followed its lucrative Deutsche Bahn win by picking up the Balisto chocolate confectionery account, worth around DM7m (3.2m). Balisto, a Mars brand, was previously handled by Scholz & Friends.

The Ludwig Schokolade account, worth DM10m (4.5m), has been awarded to Damm, Frankfurt, with a brief to develop pan-European campaigns.

The Lowe Group has taken a minority stake in Bosch & Butz, Zurich, Switzerland’s tenth-largest agency.

Start Advertising, the Munich-based agency, has won the Mercedes-Benz corporate account, after beating Baäder, Lang, Behnken and Springer & Jacoby.