By Greg Hazley
Next Fifteen Communications Group on April 5 reported a 19% increase in revenues for the six months ended January 31 to £40.8M, boosted by acquisitions like The BlueShirt Group, digital work, and a rebound in the U.S. market.
On an organic basis, revenue rose 7% for the period – 11% in the U.S., which contributes 53% of its revenue.
The parent company of PR firms like Text 100 and M Booth & Associates said a market transition to digital is paying off.
“Our deep heritage in technology and investments in digital have put us in a great position to grow both our core customer base and into adjacent markets,” said chairman Will Whitehorn, who said clients Zynga, Facebook, American Express and Google expanded their work with Next Fifteen firms during the period.
Tech is about 73% of its PR agencies’ business.
Next Fifteen acquired The Blueshirt Group in an $11M deal in October and the firm contributed about £1M in revenue over the past three months. Edison Research noted Blueshirt is benefitting from an uptick in the U.S. tech IPO market.
Next Fifteen also bought Hong Kong-based OneXeno for its Bite Communications unit, Glasshouse Partnership to become part of Lexis, and design firm Type 3 during the six-month period.
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