London-based media holding company Aegis Group today reported an 11 percent drop in organic revenue through the first nine months of the year. It did not disclose the actual revenue total. By comparison, a year ago the company reported organic revenue growth of 7.3 percent for the first nine months.
When currency movements and acquisitions are factored in, revenue was up 1 percent during the period, Aegis said.
The company did not disclose the Jan.-Aug. 2009 revenue figure, nor did it disclose a figure for the comparable period in 2008. All told last year, Aegis' revenue rose about 5 percent to $1.93 billion.
Net new business for the period totaled $2.4 billion, with account wins including Beiersdorf, Kellogg's and Nokia.
The company said that it continues to pay strict attention to costs, noting that staff cuts have resulted in savings of more than $60 million through the first nine months of the year. The company said earlier that it was planning to cut staff by 5 percent in 2009.
Aegis reiterated its full-year guidance that pre-tax profits should fall in the range of between $226 million and $243 million, in line with analysts' estimates.
John Napier, chairman and interim CEO, said in a statement, "Our strategy to perform resiliently in a downturn has continued to deliver and we are pleased to confirm further progress in a difficult and challenging market environment."
A day earlier, speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference in Barcelona, Spain, Napier was quoted by Reuters denying renewed speculation that a merger with Aegis and Paris-based holding company Havas was in the offing.
"You can speculate endlessly but there's no substance in these speculations whatsoever," Napier told the conference attendees, according to Reuters. "It's the board's job to run the company in the interest of its shareholders. Nobody's standing around offering great big bags of gold," he said. Earlier in the conference it was widely reported that Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, predicted that a Havas-Aegis merger would finally occur in 2010 (he reportedly made the same prediction in 2008 and 2009).
French financier Vincent Bollore is the largest single shareholder in Aegis, with more than 29 percent of the outstanding stock, and the chairman and controlling shareholder in Havas. He has repeatedly signaled his interest in having the two companies form some kind of alliance if not merge outright, but has been quiet on the subject in recent months.
Speculation about a merger was rekindled last month when Havas announced a new $500 million-plus bond issue.
See also:
"IPG's Q3 Income, Revenue Tumble"
"Publicis' Levy Sees Growth by Mid-2010"
"Omnicom Endures Rough Q3"
"MDC Q3: Earnings Rise as Revenue Falls"
"Havas Sees 8.2% Revenue Slide"
