LONDON (Brand Republic) 鈥 WPP Group has surpassed expectations for its full-year results with profits up 43%, but warned that a slump in North America may lead to losses during the first half of this year.
Pre-tax profits increased to £365.7m in 2000, up from £255.4m in 1999, beating analyst predictions of between £340m-£365m.
US and European units were credited with WPP鈥檚 strong performance, as well as the Olympic Games and recovery in Asia Pacific and in parts of Latin America.
WPP is the world鈥檚 largest advertising group and includes J Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide and new addition Young & Rubicam, which it bought last October for about $3.9bn (£2.7bn) in stock, in its stable. It numbers American Express, Ford Motor Company and IBM among its clients.
Shares of the London-based group fell 3.5p yesterday, or less than 1%, to 825p. Last year they fell 11%, mirroring a 10% drop in the benchmark FTSE 100 index.
WPP chairman Sir Martin Sorrell said that activity this year would not be as good as 2000, but there would not be a time 鈥渨here we should cut our throats, at least not yet鈥.