 |
| Mark McCall |
FTI Consulting registered 15.6 percent growth in Q1 PR revenues to $69.9M driven by strong demand for its corporate reputation services offering.
CEO Steven Gunby cited the strategic communications unit along with the corporate finance and restructuring practice, which was up 12 percent to $27.1M, as the strong performers during the period.
Operating income for the stratcom business surged 62.6 percent to $14.8M, while billable headcount grew 10 percent to 856 people as of March 31.
Mark McCall, head of the stratcom arm, said cybersecurity, crisis, ESG and regulatory areas performed well during the period.
He noted an upswing in follow-on business as clients who may have hired FTI for a cyber assignment wound up putting the shop on retainer.
Stratcom's transaction business was "good" during the quarter with an uptick in restructurings, according to McCall.
McCall said there were notable hirings for his unit during the quarter.
Sitrick And Company's Tom Becker joined as senior managing director in the crisis & litigation practice; Deutsche Bank's Dan Hunter signed on to head the Americas financial services practice; Abernathy MacGregor's Patrick Tucker enlisted to spearhead the M&A/activism operation, and Teneo's Graham McMillian took on a senior advisor post on ESG issues in London.
FTI’s overall Q1 revenues advanced 5.4 percent to $723.6M.
Net income slipped 8.1 percent to $59.3M due to higher selling, general & administrative costs and compensation expenses.
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.
