The French advertising group Publicis has said that it is on target to achieve predicted profit margins despite the bleak state of the advertising economy.
Speaking at a media conference in Paris, Maurice Levy, the chairman and CEO of Publicis, stated that the company had seen no reason to amend its forecast of a 14.1% operating margin for 2002.
“At November 30, the last closing of our accounts, we knew that our revenues and operating margin was rigorously in line with our operating plan,” he said. Levy claimed that adspend will increase by a mere 1% this year but the firm has been outperforming the market (see Publicis Results Outperform Struggling Ad Market) and is aiming for an EBIT margin of 15% in the second half of 2003.
Last year Publicis made a successful bid for the US agency BCom3 (see Publicis Confirms BCom3 Merger Details) and the merger, completed in September, made it the fourth largest advertising network in the world. However, Levy has ruled out further expansion for the time being and is more concerned with rebuilding the share price which fell by 25% last year.
“One must not expect Publicis to make a big acquisition in 2003, unless there is an exceptional event,” he said.
