WPP says Olympics and U.S. election to boost 2008
WPP, the world’s second-largest advertising and marketing company, said underlying revenue growth would be better in 2008 than 2007, boosted by the Beijing Olympics and U.S. election.
The group met forecasts for 2007 underlying revenue growth, adding it had been boosted by record business wins towards the end of the year and had not felt any impact from the global financial crises.
But it warned again on Friday that the “real world” could be affected in 2009.
WPP reported like-for-like growth, a key industry metric which strips out the impact of acquisitions and currency fluctuations, of 5 percent.
Analysts said they expected the lack of any negative surprises and the relatively robust outlook statement to restore confidence online payday advance. Its shares were up almost 1 percent at 617 pence.
“We have only preliminary data for January in 2008 and this shows like-for-like revenues up 5 percent,” the company said.
“On the basis of these data, 2008 should be a better year than 2007, against the views of most economic forecasters, who predict a gloomy 2008.”
The group, whose agencies include JWT and Young & Rubicam, reported 2007 revenues of 6.19 billion pounds ($12.27 billion) and adjusted pretax profit of 817 million pounds, ahead of analyst forecasts at 811 million pounds.