Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy reports a better-than-expected 0.9 percent organic growth rate for French ad/PR combine.

"This isn't yet the growth rate we expect to see out of Publicis Groupe, but is nonetheless an encouraging return to growth," he said today in a statement.

The $3.7B acquisition of Sapient and favorable currency exchange rates powered a 31.7 percent surge in sales to 2.1M euros.

Levy attributed the organic growth to a thriving digital business, which was up 4.7 percent, and gains in healthcare. Digital generates 50.2 percent of total revenues.

The firm struggled in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India China) and MISSAT (Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, South Africa and Turkey) regions as organic revenues slipped 2.6 percent.

On the PR front, MSLGroup reported major gains form Alcon, 24 Hour Fitness, Rover.com in the US; Michelin, AIG, Conforama and Elior in France; ThyssenKrupp, ING and Niivea in Poland, BASF and Henkel in Brazil, and Alibaba and Belkin International in China.

Levy said Publicis is "ahead of the curve" in positioning for the "blurring of boundaries" occurring in every facet of the communications business

He anticipates better organic growth during the second-half and continued improvement in margin from now and 2018.