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| Mark McCall |
FTI Consulting registered a 15.5 percent jump in Q4 PR revenues to $69.9M and a 38.3 percent surge in operating income to $14.2M.
Mark McCall, who helms the strategic communications segment, told O’Dwyer’s that robust demand in the crisis, issues, regulatory, government intervention and transaction segments spurred growth.
There was strong momentum in the cybersecurity, ESG and digital/analytics categories.
For all of 2021, the stratcomm unit’s revenues were up 17 percent to $267.6M, while operating profit increased 57.1 percent to $49.7M.
The PR division’s billable headcount rose 5.7 percent to 814 staffers in 18 countries at year end 2021.
McCall noted that FTI recently added Abernathy McGregor’s Pat Tucker to head its mergers/acquisitions and activism practice.
Tucker has handled clients such as KKR, BDT & Company, Carlyle Group, Conoco Phillips, Sanofi and T-Mobile.
The firm also bolstered its presence in Washington by recruiting Brian Papp to advise clients on public policy and government relations matters.
He was staff director on the Senate Finance Committee's subcommittee on international trade, customs and global competitiveness.
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.
