WPP shares hit an all-time high after the advertising giant reported a 15.8% rise in pre-tax profit and said Brexit will not hinder its growth strategy.
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Reported revenue rose 13.2% to GBP3.46 billion in the three months to June 30, boosted by Western continental Europe and emerging markets.
It said that it expected a weaker second half, partly due to a stronger comparative period past year.
Analysts had expected first-half net sales growth to come in around 3.2 to 3.3 percent but the British firm said investments in technology had helped to enhance growth from advertising and the management of media investment.
Revenues in the first half grew 11.9 percent to 6.536 billion pounds from 5.84 billion pounds a year ago. WPP’s profit beat the average analyst estimate of £754m.
“Despite GDP growth in the 3.0%-3.5% range with little inflation and consequent lack of pricing power, client data continues to reflect some increase in advertising and promotional spending – with the former tending to grow faster than the latter, which from our point of view is more positive – across most of the group’s major geographic and functional sectors”, the company said.
In its release, WPP said there was “limited likelihood of a worldwide recession” but named Russia, Brazil and the United Kingdom as possible countries that could see two quarters of negative growth.
WPP shares were up 6.1 percent at 1,845 pence at 0920 GMT, the biggest rise on the UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index valuing the group at about 24 billion pounds.
It now hoped to see revenue from those markets making up 40-45 percent over the next four to five years, from a previous target of 35 to 40 percent.
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WPP said it expects weaker figures for the remaining six months of the year but suggested this had more to do with strong comparative performance in 2015.
