By Leo Marchandon
April 14 - Publicis on Tuesday reported first-quarter net revenue organic growth of 4.5%, meeting company-provided consensus and outpacing advertising industry peers, as AI and acquisitions drove gains in key markets, including the U.S. and China.
The French company said it expects an acceleration in the second quarter and reaffirmed its full-year outlook of net organic growth of between 4% and 5%.
Chief Executive Arthur Sadoun also reiterated the plan to use "the billion in cash"
available over the year for acquisitions rather than dividends or buybacks, prioritizing increasing capabilities to meet client demands.
During the first quarter, the company acquired content measurement platform AdgeAI for an undisclosed amount and sports marketing agency 160over90 for $500 million.
Sadoun highlighted that Publicis maintained its leading position in net new billings in China and the U.S. despite the IPG-Omnicom merger.
He expressed confidence to reporters during a call that Publicis would continue to outperform as the group expands its addressable market, while the industry has shrunk from six global competitors to three in just six years.
Sadoun attributed the performance to gains since introducing their own AI platform Marcel internally in 2017 to automate tasks.
The company nearly doubled its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) over eight years, from 1.7 billion euros in 2017 to 3.2 billion euros in 2025, even as it expanded its headcount.
The Paris-based company reported a first-quarter revenue growth of 6.4% compared to the previous year, reaching 4.2 billion euros ($4.93 billion), while net revenue reached 3.5 billion euros.
The group added that its marketing services, representing 86% of total revenue, grew 7.6% organically, while its tech services arm was "slightly down", as the war in the Middle East weighed on large and capex-heavy IT spending but not on marketing budgets.
($1 = 0.8521 euros)
(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
