The results were near the lower end of analyst expectations of €2.4-€2.5bn. Looking ahead, chairman and CEO Maurice Levy said that he saw no significant recovery in the advertising markets, despite some recent firming in new-business activity.
Publicis attributed the growth largely to its acquisition of UK agency Saatchi & Saatchi, which it bought in 2000.
Worldwide consolidated billings rose 41.2% from €11.8bn to €16.7bn, including net new business of €2.3bn.
The company said organic growth was ahead of expectations at 3.1%, against a 4-5% decline in the worldwide advertising market. Analysts had forecast organic growth of 2%-3% at best.
The results follow an aggressive acquisition strategy that saw it buy, among others, Saatchi & Saatchi and Nelson Communications, which were consolidated into Publicis' results late in 2000, and Zenith Media, which was consolidated in to the company in the last quarter of 2001.
Publicis, which also owns Fallon Worldwide, is the sixth-largest advertising group in the world. In July, it created the world's third-largest media-buying agency in a deal with Cordiant Communications to merge their media operations to form Zenith Optimedia Group, in which Publicis holds a 75% stake.
However, despite the company's strong performance, Levy remained pessimistic about the outlook for the next 12 months.
According to Levy: "In this environment, Publicis Groupe can be proud to have achieved its goals, which meant that, even if growth looked modest compared with past performances of Publicis, it was nevertheless seven to eight percentage points of growth better than the industry overall. This demonstrates once again the remarkable talents, resources and resilience of our people and our teams worldwide."
Despite seeing no signs of recovery in 2002, Levy said he hoped that Publicis would continue to outperform the sector. "Publicis will nonetheless continue to benefit from invaluable strengths and we expect to again outperform the world advertising market."
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