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| Mark McCall |
FTI Consulting's strategic communications unit posted a "solid" Q4 performance as it counseled clients on how to navigate increasingly complex political, trade and economic environments, Mark McCall, segment leader told O'Dwyer's.
Revenues advanced 14.3 percent to $66.3M during the quarter, while operating income slipped 15 percent to $8.5M as FTI invested in talent and technological expertise to further grow the business, according to McCall.
The unit's billable headcount rose 13.6 percent to 728 people at yearend 2019 compared to the previous year.
McCall said corporate reputation work powered the stratcom offering as clients relied on PA, government relations, analytics, insights and crisis expertise.
He said FTI is helping clients "understand the conversations that are going on about them in social media."
The global disruption in highly regulated sectors, such as healthcare, energy and financial services, sparked the PR unit and positioned it for future growth.
McCall noted the PR group is doing more and more work with other offerings (corporate finance & restructuring, business transformation) of FTI,
For the full-year, stratcom revenues jumped 8.9 percent to $243M. Operating income rose 4.8 percent to $39.1M.
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.
