WPP

S&P Global has reaffirmed its negative “BBB” rating on WPP due to ongoing challenges that it will face during the next 12 months.

“WPP might not return to organic revenue growth, its profitability will remain weak, and there is uncertainty around the execution of its strategy,” said S&P Global in its research update of March 12.

It did predict that a successful rollout of CEO Cindy Rose’s “Elevate28” survival plan to simplify operations by abandoning its traditional holding company structure could result in organic growth in 2027

S&P estimates “like-for-like net revenue decline of 2%-4% in 2026 for WPP, well below our expectations for peers like Publicis Groupe S.A. and Omnicom Group Inc. and we expect the company will report sequential improvement in second half of 2026 with positive organic revenue growth in 2027."

It did acknowledge that WPP's sizable new business wins over the last few months, including media contracts won with the U.K. Government, Estee Lauder, SC Johnson and Jaguar Land Rover Automotive support future revenue growth.

S&P noted the risks subject to its forecast. That includes increasing competition with AI-native solutions which could erode market share for traditional ad agencies in the medium term.

There is also a high degree of unpredictability around the duration and scale of the Middle East war and its potential effect on commodity prices, supply chains and economies, which could also weigh on global advertising spending and WPP's performance, it added.