Wolf Group has made a bid for a u.s. agency that, if completed, would make the Toronto-based company the 15th-largest agency network in North America.

Larry Wolf, chairman of Wolf Group, confirms that a letter of intent has been signed with Arnold Communications, a Boston, Mass.-based agency with us$650 million in annual billings.

‘All our agencies here sell out to the u.s., the British or French,’ says Wolf, ‘and this is the first time Canada would have a significant Canadian-based multinational agency.

‘It’s about time we bought foreign agencies rather than the other way around.’

Arnold handles the North American business for Volkswagen and Ocean Spray and works on other major brands including Bell Atlantic, McDonald’s Restaurants, Fleet Bank, Mobil Oil, Titleist, The Hartford Life Insurance Co., and sap, a developer of business applications software.

It has direct marketing, information technology, interactive and public relations divisions and full-service offices in Richmond, Va., and Washington, d.c., in addition to Boston. There are 12 regional offices located throughout the u.s. and Canada.

Wolf says Arnold has agreed to the essential business terms of the agreement to purchase but adds there are still a number of points to be resolved before the deal can be completed by April 1, 1998.

Wolf Group has been talking to a number of u.s. agencies this year and would have other options if the Arnold deal fell through, says Wolf, adding Arnold – by far the largest of these agencies – is still the first choice.

This March, Wolf Group bought its third u.s. agency, Meldrum & Fewsmith Communications of Cleveland, Ohio with a client roster that includes Dirt Devil, Libbey, Mr. Coffee and Rubbermaid.

That purchase put the Wolf Group’s total billings to more than $200 million.

The 25-year-old Toronto agency made its first u.s. acquisition in 1987 with an agency now known as Wolf Mansfield Bolling of Buffalo, n.y. and in 1992, added Wolf Winterkorn Lillis of Rochester, n.y.