• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, February 21, 2013

Agency holding company MDC Partners crossed the billion-dollar revenue mark for the first time in 2012. For the year, revenue was up 14% to $1.07 billion, while organic growth was up 8.4%.

The company reported a 16% revenue gain in the fourth quarter of the year to nearly $295 million. Organic revenue growth for that period was almost 12%.

The company's Q4 and full-year organic growth rates are highest among holding companies reporting results for those periods so far, albeit from a lower revenue base.  

According to company founder and CEO Miles Nadal, the company’s financial performance improved in every quarter of 2012. “Our effort is working,” Nadal told analysts and investors on a Wednesday afternoon conference call to create a “transformational business model” that utilizes technology to maximize client marketing ROI.

From a revenue standpoint, the company has doubled in size over the last three years and tripled in size over the last five-plus years, said MDC CFO David Doft.

MDC reported record net new business wins accounting for $137 million in annualized revenue for the year, including assignments from Red Robin restaurants and Minute Maid. The company also confirmed that it has agencies in the ongoing Porsche and Honda Acura pitches.

The company had a net loss for the year of more than $79 million, about $3 million more than the loss recorded for 2011 -- all of it related to payments for acquisitions. Total free cash flow for the year more than doubled to $104 million.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for Q4 totaled nearly $44 million -- up 66% -- while full-year EBITDA rose 27% to more than $118 million.

The company's media operations, managed under the Maxxcom umbrella that was formed last year, outperformed the MDC portfolio as a whole on an organic growth basis, said Doft.

For 2013, Doft said MDC expects to generate revenue growth of between 5% and 7% to as much as $1.15 billion, while EBITDA should grow between 11.5% and 14% with a free cash flow gain of between 11% and 21%.