PARIS-- Publicis Groupe SA Tuesday reported a 32% jump in
first-quarter sales, boosted by the strong dollar and its latest
digital acquisition as the advertising company works toward a
recovery after a tough past year.
Publicis said first-quarter sales rose to EUR2.1 billion ($2.3
billion) from EUR1.6 billion in the same period last year as the
group benefited from the strong dollar and pound sterling compared
with the euro.
Publicis is one of the most dollar-exposed companies on the
CAC-40 index, with over half of its sales alone stemming from North
America.
Stripping out acquisitions, disposals and currency swings--sales
grew only 0.9%, slightly better than expected, but still far away
from the company's historic growth levels.
"Our first-quarter numbers are encouraging for the rest of the
year and make us confident that we are on our way back to
performing more like we used to," Chief Executive Maurice Levy told
reporters.
The French owner of agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi had
warned that first-quarter sales will be weak as the company is
still contending with the consequences of its failed merger attempt
with U.S. rival Omnicom Group Inc., which weighed on performances
last year, as well as a sharp drop in revenue at its digital agency
Razorfish. In the first quarter, a sharp drop in organic sales in
Russia and Brazil as well as a slight decline in China also
dragged.
Publicis has been focusing on recovering lost ground. It is
betting that the recent addition of U.S.-based digital agency and
consultancy Sapient to its roster of digital agencies will make
Publicis become the vanguard of the digital transformation that is
upending the ad industry and help the group reclaim its position as
one of the industry's fastest-growing agencies.
Mr. Levy said the integration of Sapient is running as planned
so far. The company is midway through a first 90-day strategy plan
aimed at laying out the new organization and way of working with
Sapient, he added.
For this year, Mr. Levy said he still aims for Publicis to post
sales growth "at least" in line with the average of the advertising
market, which he expects to be around 3% after ad forecasters
recently downgraded their outlook for the year, due notably to the
difficult economic climate in Russia.
Publicis--the world's third-largest advertising company by
revenue--works for clients including consumer-goods giants such as
Procter & Gamble Co., car maker Renault SA and pharmaceutical
company Sanofi SA.
Write to Ruth Bender at Ruth.Bender@wsj.com
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