Publicis posts 5.3% revenue growth in Q1, beats expectations

By Stephanie Hamel

(Reuters) - French advertising group Publicis on Thursday reported better-than-expected organic revenue growth in the first quarter, helped by its Epsilon and Publicis Media businesses, cementing its outlier status in an otherwise sluggish sector.

The world's largest advertising group by market value also attributed its quarterly performance to the recent acquisitions of AKA Asia in Singapore and Spinnaker in the United States, and a recent rebound in the tech sector.

"After extracting ourselves from the pack in 2023, we clearly carried that momentum into Q1," CEO Arthur Sadoun said in a press release.

Net revenue came in at 3.23 billion euros ($3.47 billion) in the first quarter, a 5.3% organic growth, above the 4% to 5% guidance range announced in February.

The group kept its guidance for 2024, also expecting organic net revenue to grow by 4% to 5%, highlighting that "the +4% is rock solid" as it takes into account delays in business transformation, more cuts in advertising spend and a conservative approach to budget adjustments.

By contrast, rival WPP said in February it expected flat to 1% growth this year, due to the loss of some creative accounts. It will publish its first-quarter results on April 16.

Publicis' investments in data and tech via units like Epsilon and Sapient have borne fruit in the past quarters, as global advertising became increasingly dominated by digital and geared towards personalisation.

"By gaining market shares, we demonstrate that we have a model that is superior to the others," Sadoun said in a press call. "It is our ability to offer products and services that the others don't that generates growth that outstrips the competition."

For the second quarter, the maker of marketing campaigns for the likes of L'Oréal or Walmart anticipates an organic growth within the full-year range.

($1 = 0.9304 euro)

(Reporting by Stéphanie Hamel; editing by Jonathan Oatis)