UK and Asia boost profits at Omnicom

Campaign, Friday, 28 July 2006, 12:00am,

Omnicom has posted an 8 per cent rise in profits for the second quarter, on the back of strong revenue growth in the UK and Asia.

UK revenues rose 12.8 per cent to $304 million for the three months to 30 June, while US revenues increased by 7.5 per cent to $1.5 billion. Revenues outside the US, Europe and the UK increased by 12.1 per cent during the second quarter and by 14.2 per cent for the first six months.

Omnicom's total revenues rose by 7.9 per cent to $2.8 billion. However, ad revenues showed the slowest growth among Omnicom's four disciplines, rising 5.7 per cent to $1.2 billion, while customer relationship marketing revenues increased by 9.6 per cent to £978.6 million, PR revenues by 8.9 per cent and speciality revenues by 10.8 per cent.

Omnicom, led by its chief executive, John Wren, said that the increases were driven by new business and a "modest growth" in client spend.

The company has also made a series of acquisitions in the second quarter of the year. Among these were two US-based content companies - EVB and EMP.

This article was first published on Campaign