French marketing and advertising business posts 6.5% organic revenue growth, although Middle East affected by turmoil
French marketing and advertising business Publicis Groupe has reported a strong start to 2011 with organic revenue growth of 6.5% to ?1.29bn (�1.14bn) in the first quarter, although it admitted that its Middle East operation had been hit by turmoil in the region.
Maurice L�vy, the chief executive of Publicis, said that growth came from a combination of a general upturn in the global economy and strong growth in the US and a "good performance in certain European countries".
In Europe organic revenue growth was up 6.2% year on year in the first quarter, led by France ? up an impressive 8.2% ? and a "double digit" performance in Germany. In the UK, revenue growth was just 2.4%. Spain "remains negative", the company said.
In North America organic revenue growth was up 8.1% year on year. Asia Pacific grew by just 1.5%, with a 8.2% surge in China unable to offset the negative performance in markets including Japan, Australia and Thailand.
In Africa and the Middle East organic revenue growth fell by 0.5% year on year, although the region accounts for just ?29m of total revenues. "The recent events hurt business in the region, except in the United Arab Emirates, where Publicis posted 7% growth," the company said.
L�vy added that the company's investments in digital operation ? it owns agencies including Digitas and Razorfish ? are "paying off". Digital business now accounts for 28.2% of Publicis's total revenues.
He said that he expects Publicis's business in China to double in size by 2013. "As before, China has priority status," he added. "We will also be maintaining our targeted acquisition strategy."
Publicis reported almost $2bn in new client business wins. L�vy said that despite a patchy global economic picture Publicis is "cautiously optimistic" and "confident that we will meet our growth targets in 2011".
Net debt was ?286m at 31 March.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/21/publicis-groupe-q1-2011
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