French advertising company Havas SA (HAV.FR) Thursday posted a
decline in organic sales for the first three months of the year as
it suffered from a series of account losses in the U.S. and morose
ad markets in Europe.
MAIN FACTS:
- Havas said organic revenue--a closely-watched figure in the
industry stripping out exchange rate movements, acquisitions and
disposals--fell 0.9% in the quarter.
- Organic revenue in the U.S. fell 3.9%, dragged down by some
one-off account losses last year including Dell Inc. (DELL), Sprint
Nextel Corp. (S) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM). The group also faced
a high comparison base in the quarter.
- In Europe, organic growth fell 0.3%. France reported organic
growth of 1.2% in the first quarter and the UK returned to growth,
with organic growth up 0.7%, despite budget cuts by certain
clients. The Rest of Europe reported an overall decline of
2.4%.
- Asia-Pacific and Africa grew 1% organically in the quarter
while Latin America was up 8.6%.
- On a reported basis, first-quarter revenue fell 0.3% to EUR386
million from EUR387 million in the same period last year.
- Net new business totaled EUR402 million.
- Havas is the first advertising group to report declining
organic revenue for the quarter. WPP PLC (WPP.LN), the world's
largest advertising company posted growth of 2.1% last week and
France's Publicis Groupe SA (PUB.FR) earlier last month reported
organic revenue growth of 1.3% for the three months.
-Write to Ruth Bender at ruth.bender@dowjones.com
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