Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy reports a better-than-expected 0.9 percent organic growth rate for French ad/PR combine.
"This isn't yet the growth rate we expect to see out of Publicis Groupe, but is nonetheless an encouraging return to growth," he said today in a statement.
The $3.7B acquisition of Sapient and favorable currency exchange rates powered a 31.7 percent surge in sales to 2.1M euros.
Levy attributed the organic growth to a thriving digital business, which was up 4.7 percent, and gains in healthcare. Digital generates 50.2 percent of total revenues.
The firm struggled in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India China) and MISSAT (Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, South Africa and Turkey) regions as organic revenues slipped 2.6 percent.
On the PR front, MSLGroup reported major gains form Alcon, 24 Hour Fitness, Rover.com in the US; Michelin, AIG, Conforama and Elior in France; ThyssenKrupp, ING and Niivea in Poland, BASF and Henkel in Brazil, and Alibaba and Belkin International in China.
Levy said Publicis is "ahead of the curve" in positioning for the "blurring of boundaries" occurring in every facet of the communications business
He anticipates better organic growth during the second-half and continued improvement in margin from now and 2018.
Public Policy Holding Company grew 27.5 percent to $50.1M during Q1, powered by the accelerating contribution from recent acquisitions and a 5.1 percent hike in organic revenues across its three operating segments.
Institutional Shareholder Services advises investors to vote "no" on a compensation package for WPP chief Cindy Rose at the May 8 annual meeting.
FTI Consulting chalked up a 9.5 percent rise in Q1 revenues to $983.3M, powered by gains in its PR, corporate finance and technology segments.
Stagwell reports 4 percent growth in Q1 net revenues to $585M and a record $141M in net new business wins.
WPP reported a 6.7 percent drop to $3.1B in Q1 like-like revenues less pass-through costs. CEO Cindy Rose says 'it will take time to outpace historical losses."
