Aegis claims top organic growth as profits surge

LONDON - Aegis has boasted of having the highest organic revenue growth rate in the industry, as it reveals underlying annual pre-tax profits are up 16% to 拢116.2m.

The company, which continues to rebuff the attentions of majority shareholder Vincent Bollore, enjoyed organic growth of 7.7% in 2006.

Its revenues grew from £870.4m to £996.9m, with its media operations up 10.3% to £595.7m, and its market research side Synovate up 21.4% to £401.2m.

Wins for the Carat, such as the £400m GM Europe media account and the £160m Adidas-Reebok global media brief, helped it to a record new-business performance of $2.7bn (£1.4bn) compared with $1.7bn in 2005.

Robert Lerwill, chief executive of Aegis, described 2007 as a promising year following an excellent 2006.

He said: "We continued to operate at the forefront of major industry shifts: digital convergence in media and entertainment; true globalisation and sophisticated applications in market research... overall Aegis delivered better organic growth than its peers, and a 10th year of market outperformance."

On April 4, the company will hold a third shareholder meeting to vote on whether to grant Bollore, the chairman of rival group Havas, two board seats. The vast majority of non-Bollore Group shareholders were opposed in the two previous votes.

The group's statutory pre-tax profits were up 20.7% to £113.5m. However, it provided an underlying profit figure indicating a 16% rise to £116.2m.

The latter figure excludes exceptional items such as the £3.8m it has set aside, relating to the fraud it uncovered at its Aegis Media operations in Germany last year. It believes the fraud, which it has already estimated at £25.8m over three years, led it to over-claim VAT deductions by £3.8m.

The company points out that digital now accounts for 20% of revenue, up from 15% last year, while 20% of its business is in developing markets.

Its chief financial officer Jeremy Hicks is to leave on April 1 to relocate to the US. He will be replaced by Alicja Lesniak, who has worked for marketing services agencies for 20 years, with a recent seven-year spell as chief financial officer of BBDO EMEA.

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