French advertising and communications agency Publicis has given a cautious outlook in its AGM statement, saying that full-year global advertising growth is expected to come in at 3%. This is higher than ABN Amro’s expected 1.3%, but below Robert Coen’s estimate of 5% outside the US.
Publicis CEO Maurice Levy expects his company to outperform this average, but ABN analysts have downgraded the group’s financial performance in the light of the continued advertising downturn. The organic growth forecast for 2001 has been reduced from 7.7% to 6.0%. ABN says that advertising is still being downgraded and that Publicis figures are likely to be reduced again as a result.
ABN Amro: Hold
