WPP reports 3.1% revenue growth for third quarter
WPP has reported a 3.1 per cent revenue growth to £2.763bn during the third quarter of the year, with new business of £3.592bn for the first nine months of the year.
The world’s largest marketing services network, which owns agencies including AKQA, Ogilvy & Mather and J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT), also revealed that net sales had fallen by 1.2 per cent in Sterling during the previous three months but that like-for-like sales growth had increase by 3 per cent during the period.
Advertising and media investment management revenue grew by 20.1 per cent with Ogilvy & Mather, JWT, Y&R and Grey generating new business billings of £172m combined, while GroupM agencies generated £669m all together.
With new business already won in the fourth quarter, the network has claimed its total will already amount to over £1bn for the year in advertising and media.
Meanwhile, public relations business grew slowly by 0.3 per cent in revenue and net sales for the last quarter, while data management increased by 0.5 per cent and Branding and Identity, Healthcare and Specialist Communications revenue was up by 6.8 per cent for the period.
During the third quarter, the company made 55 acquisitions and investment deals, including one between Xaxis and AppNexus.