Publicis Groupe in April reported revenue of €2.328 billion (about $2.52 billion) for 2017’s first quarter, a year-over-year uptick of about 1.6 percent. Organic growth, on the other hand, was down 1.2 percent for the period, a far cry from the 2.9 percent in organic gains the French ad/PR operation experienced during the first quarter of 2016.

Publicis

Growth was especially strong in Europe, where the PR/ad combine saw €655 million (about $710 million) in Q1 revenue, an organic upswing of 5.5 percent from Q1 2016’s €631 million (about $684 million). Publicis in a quarterly earnings statement attributed these gains to strong performances in France, the UK and Italy, where revenues were up 11.9 percent, 9.1 percent and 6.3 percent respectively.

Publicis' Latin America and Middle East / Africa regions also saw growth of 4.5 percent and 1.5 respectively. North America, on the other hand, experienced a dip in organic revenue of 5 percent, to €1.29 billion (about $1.39 billion), compared to the €1.3 billion (about $1.41 billion) that region experienced a year ago.

Outgoing chairman and CEO Maurice Lévy in a statement said the figures “send out faint but encouraging signals as to the Groupe’s situation,” pointing to Q1 account wins that illustrate “a positive momentum” that the holding company finds “encouraging in many respects.”

Levy also said Publicis expects Q2 “to remain in negative territory, but to show an improvement compared with the first quarter.”

Publicis in January announced that longtime leader Lévy would be succeeded on June 1 by Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis Worldwide and head of Publicis Groupe’s creative hub Publicis Communications.

Lévy will continue with Publicis as chairman of its supervisory board, an appointment contingent upon shareholders’ vote.