WPP has reported a 0.5 per cent decline in revenue, less pass through costs, to £2.9bn ($A5.64 billion) led by a 2.4 per cent revenue decline across its creative agencies division. The holding company’s like-for-like first half revenue was up 2.6 per cent to £2.23bn.
WPP has also sold its 50 per cent stake in the strategic advisor and communications consultancy FGS Global, which formed through the merger of Finsbury Glover Hering and Sard Verbinnen & Co.
The advertising giant has 3,000 fewer staff across its workforce compared to the same time last year. Their headcount now stands at 111,000.
A bright spot was the performance of GroupM, which grew quarterly revenues by 1.4 percent, while its global integrated agencies dropped by 0.6 per cent.
China was the region that showed the most decline; its revenue was down by 24.2 per cent, while the UK, where WPP is headquartered, experienced a 5.3 per cent drop. The Rest of the World region, which includes Australia, was down by 2.2 per cent. Its other regions showed growth; India was up 9.1 per cent, North America grew 2 per cent and western continental Europe was up 0.3 per cent.
GroupM described its Q2 revenue results as a “sequential improvement” on its first quarter, which was down by 1.6 per cent.
“Our second quarter performance delivered sequential improvement in net sales10 with continued growth in GroupM, Ogilvy and Hogarth and sequential improvement at Burson, VML and our Specialist Agencies,” WPP CEO Mark Read said.
“Importantly, we also saw North America return to growth in the second quarter. That said, we have seen pressure in China and in our project-related businesses which, together with an uncertain macro environment, has led us to moderate our expectations for the full-year.”
Read said money freed up by the sale of WPP’s stake in FGS Global would allow it to focus on its “core creative transformation” and “significantly strengthen our financial position”.
“As a team, our priority continues to be improving our competitiveness by delivering a modern, global, creative and integrated offer for our clients. The steps we have taken since January to integrate our offer, bring in new talent and invest in AI represent strong progress towards delivering on our medium-term financial targets and to shareholders,” he added.
Rivals Publicis Groupe reported organic revenue growth of 5.4 per cent in the first half of 2024. Omnicom grew non-organic first half sales were up by 6.3 per cent.
