Cheil Worldwide Inc., the advertising unit of the Samsung Group, plans to raise its investment and hiring this year after its negotiations to sell a controlling stake to a French advertising giant fell apart, industry sources said Wednesday.

The company, part of South Korea's largest family-controlled conglomerate, plans to push forward with aggressive mergers and acquisitions and set a goal to expand its sales by more than 10 percent in 2016, they said.

The country's No. 1 advertising company logged 2.8 trillion won ($2.37 billion) in sales last year.

The agency also plans to strengthen its business in new emerging markets such as India and China, the sources said.

Cheil Worldwide currently has 52 regional offices in 42 countries around the globe. Most recently, a regional office was opened in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier, the Seoul-based advertising agency said its negotiations to sell a controlling stake to Paris-based Publicis Groupe SA, which owns advertisement agencies including Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi, fell through.

The attempt to sell off Cheil Worldwide has been pushed as part of Samsung's drive to dispose of non-core businesses. Samsung C&T Corp., the group's fashion and trading arm, and Samsung Electronics Co. each own a 12.6 percent stake in Cheil Worldwide. (Yonhap)