Publicis Groupe's growth in Asia-Pacific shrinks, but India sees a rise in revenue

Asia-Pacific was Publicis Groupe's worst-performing region last year, while overall revenues fell 0.4 per cent to €9.69bn ($11.86bn). 

 

China declined by 7.6 per cent, which the company said was due to difficulties encountered by an agency currently undergoing a strategic review for which a full sale agreement was concluded at the end of 2017.

 

According to the annual report, India consolidated with growth of 0.4 per cent in Q1 and 13.0 per cent in Q2, followed by a further 3.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent in Q3 and Q4 2017 respectively.

 

Meanwhile, activity in Singapore grew by 4.4 per cent. Currency fluctuations hit much of Publicis's growth potential, but as well as reporting strong UK growth, the ad business fared well in Italy (up 4 per cent) and its French homeland (1.1 per cent). Germany, however, suffered a 6.9 per cent drop, which the group attributed to a "difficult advertising market". European revenue was down 0.1 per cent to €2.76bn 2017 saw net income hit €862m and the company reported an operating margin of €1.67bn, while it said that organically, it grew the business by 0.8 per cent.

 

Its strongest growth was in Latin America, where 2017 revenues were up 6.6 per cent to €389m, while Middle East and Africa bolstered revenues by 3.1 per cent.

 

Analysts at Liberum said that Publicis's Q4 organic growth was broadly in line with expectations", while it noted the "acceleration of growth in North America in Q4". For the fourth quarter of 2017, revenues again fell (by 3.1 per cent), to €2.58m, a figure that marked an organic increase of 2.2 per cent and growth at constant exchange rates of 2.7 per cent.

 

Performance across the Atlantic was strong during the quarter. Year-on-year revenues were down 4 per cent but up 4.4 per cent organically, following a 3.5 per cent organic growth in Q3, largely driven by account wins. The company named-checked a number of client wins in its results, including Procter & Gamble UK, Lionsgate, Southwest Airlines, L'Oréal, McDonald's and Carrefour.

 

The group also singled out its most senior new appointee — group chief creative officer Nick Law. Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Groupe's chairman and chief executive, said: "Despite a generally difficult context and the group being in the midst of its own transformation, the quality of our results demonstrates Publicis Groupe’s strength and our ability to adapt to the deep changes affecting our industry. The group is stronger than it was a year ago."

 

(With inputs from CampaignLive.co.uk)