The group, headed by group chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, said that billings rose by 5.2% to £19.6bn, with reportable revenues up almost 5% to £4.3bn.
The company increased its profit margin by 1.1 percentage points to 14.1% and slashed debt by 34%, or nearly £400m, to £810m. It saw shares rocket by nearly 3% when the market opened, trading at 602.5p on the London Stock Exchange, a rise of 17p.
Sorrell said that he expected 2005 to be a good year for the company after record net new billings of nearly £3.8bn, including the £600m global HSBC account and Unilever's £680m pan-European media account.
He said: "2004 reflected the positive impact of quadrennial factors such as the US Presidential election, political advertising in the US pushing up media rates, the Athens Olympics and the European Football Championships. 2004 also marked a switch in client focus to top-line growth, as corporate profitability, margins and liquidity improved significantly, following cost management in the recession of 2001-2003."
"Corporate profitability is at historically high levels on both sides of the Atlantic. This resulted in unprecedented levels of new-business activity, which have continued into 2005."
Separately, Sorrell is one of the signatories on a letter published in the Financial Times this morning, coming out in favour of signing the European constitution.
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