MDC's Q1 Loss Widens

Fri., May 11, 2018

By Kevin McCauley

Scott Kaufman

MDC Partners' chief Scott Kauffman reported a $31.4M first-quarter loss, up from $11.1M a year ago.

Revenues dipped five percent to $327M, due partly to adoption of an accounting rule that shaved revenues by $21.3M.

Kauffman, who had been bullish on 2018 coming into the year, said the mini-ad/PR conglomerate's performance in March and April was "disappointing."

Client spending cutbacks and "a slower conversion of our new business pipeline" caused Kauffman to update MDC's financial targets for the year.

MDC now expects organic growth from one to three percent compared to the original four percent target. Organic growth during the first-quarter was one percent.

Kauffman said MDC has a substantial pipeline of new business opportunities and its firms are "well positioned" to "support a return to better top line growth in coming quarters."

MDC's PR firms include Hunter PR, Kwittken, Sloane & Co and Allison+Partners.

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