Paris based advertising group, Havas, has announced a decrease in revenues of 6.4% in the first six months of 2005, seeing revenues tumble to € 700 million from €748 million compared to the same period in 2004.
Operating margin also went down, declining to €75 million compared to €79 million year on year, reflecting an operating margin of 10.8%.
Despite these decreases, net income for Havas reached €34 million, up by an impressive 52% on the first half of 2004. Fully diluted earnings per share rose by 16% to €0.08 as a result of an increase of approximately 30% in the average number of shares outstanding.
Havas remains optimistic about the rest of the year, however, with the Board of Directors considering this as the beginning of the Group’s recovery and confident that Havas has the ability to rise to the challenges.
Recently, the advertising group announced new leadership of Euro RSCG Worldwide following the resignation of James R. Heedin, resulting in the formation of a new international team to lead operations (see Havas Announces New Structure For Euro RSCG Worldwide).
Mercedes Erra and Stephane Fouks have been named as the executive co-chairmen of Euro RSCG Worldwide, with David Jones assuming the position as the new chief executive officer and Remi Babinet as chief creative officer.
Early last month, Phillippe Wahl was named as chief executive officer of Havas, with Vincent Bolloré, the company’s single largest shareholder, taking up the role of chairman of the board (see Bollore Named As Chairman Of Havas).
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