 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.
Public Policy Holding Company registered 23.8 percent Q3 growth to $48.8M, with organic growth contributing 4.5 percent and the balance driven by merger & acquisition activity.
Publicis Groupe reported 3.1 percent in Q3 growth to $4B, sparked by a 3.6 percent jump North America, its biggest market.
WPP suffered a 10.2 percent drop in 1H revenues to $6.7B and a 47.8 percent plunge in operating profit to $297M.
Interpublic reported Q2 net revenues dropped 6.6 percent to $2.2B and operating income tumbled 23.4 percent to $243.7M. 
WPP has adopted a gloomier profit and sales forecast due to a deteriorating Q2 financial performance triggered by weak client spending as companies cope with the challenging economic backdrop.
