Publicis Groupe Q3 organic growth beats expectations

Publicis Groupe has reported organic revenue growth in Q3 of 9.2%, according to figures from Merrill Lynch.

These figures are well ahead of Merrill Lynch’s forecast of 8.0% and demonstrate an acceleration from 7.1% growth in Q2.

Total revenues grew by around 26% to €1,320m in Q3, driven by the acquisition of Razorfish, while net new business was also very strong at €2.7bn.

This outperformance is believed to have been driven by strong performances in North America (+12%), Asia Pacific (+9.8% with China +24.8%) and Africa & Middle East  (+6.5%).  Europe still performed strongly at +5%, however this is slightly slower than Q2.  France and the UK provided stronger figures than Germany and Southern Europe.

Several forecasts have been released over the past couple of weeks and are painting a much more positive picture for the industry than was expected even a few months ago.

Havas reported stronger than expected growth earlier this week of 5.3% (up from 2% in Q2). It was up 7.5% on Q2 in the UK, but down 5.5% in the rest of Europe according to figures from Merrill Lynch.

Meanwhile Zenith Optimedia now forecasts UK advertising growth of 4.5% in 2010, compared to previous forecasts of 1.3% growth in April or December 2009 when it suggested a likely fall of 2%.