John Wren
John Wren

Omnicom CEO John Wren reported today that second-quarter revenues rose 1.8 percent to $3.9B, while operating profit advanced 1.9 percent, to $582.3.

Organic Q2 growth for the PR group, which includes FleishmanHillard, Brodeur Partners, Cone, Ketchum, Mercury, Portland, Kreab and Porter Novelli, advanced 2.7 percent from last year's period.

OMC enjoyed robust Q2 organic growth in Europe (+11.2 percent), Asia-Pacific (+8.5 percent) and Latin America (+2.5 percent).

It stumbled in North America (-0.9 percent), UK (-2.2 percent) and the Middle East/Africa (-8.0 percent).

Wren told analysts that weakness in the North American market would subside "partially" for the rest of the year.

He said OMC was hurt by cuts in client spending and the reduction of revenues from accounts lost during earlier quarters.

For the six-month period, OMC's revenues inched ahead 1.5 percent to $7.5B, and operating profit rose 1.7 percent to $1B.