• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 1, 2011

Aegis Group, the purest media play of the major agency holding companies, this morning reported strong third quarter and first nine months results that outperformed the rest of the marketplace.

After factoring out the divestiture of its Synovate research operations, which were sold to Ipsos, the “retrained group” reported total revenue growth of 26.1% in the third quarter and 20.3% during the first nine months. Organic growth was 11.2% in the third quarter and 8.9% during the first nine months.

Aegis Media, which includes media networks such as Carat, Vizeum, Isobar, iProspect and Posterscope, was the strongest contributor to Aegis’ results, particularly in North America, where a significant number of new business wins over the past 18 months has contributed to its growth.

Aegis did not break out its North American results, but said it “delivered double-digital organic growth during the first nine months of the year,” largely on the basis of revenue resulting from those new business wins, and that despite continuing macro-economic uncertainty, is investing heavily in its North American operations.

“To support our strong new business performance over the last 18 months, we have added some additional resource in 2011, in particular in North America,” Aegis said in a statement. “We have also needed to ensure competitive salaries in certain faster-growing markets. Consequently, there has been some upward pressure on staff costs in the year.”

Aegis said its business has also been performing strongly in faster-growing markets, such as China, Russia and Brazil, and said that many key markets in Western Europe delivered strong performances despite challenging conditions on the continent. It singled out France as the only major market to have a “challenging quarter.”

Based on its continuing new business momentum, Aegis Media looks well poised to continue that momentum. It claims $2.4 billion in net new business winds over the first nine months of 2011, compared with $1.6 billion during the same period in 2010.

During the third quarter, Aegis Media took in $400 million in new business, which it described as “mainly local and national,” but it also cited several major new pieces of international business from Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Disney, Expedia and Procter & Gamble.

Our key businesses in faster-growing regions, including China, Russia and Brazil, also performed well, delivering double-digit organic revenue growth over the first nine months of the year, and our business in Australia produced double digit organic revenue growth in the third quarter.

In Western Europe, which faced more challenging market conditions, our businesses in the UK, Germany, Scandinavia and the Netherlands, all delivered strong performances in the third quarter. Our business in France had a challenging quarter and, despite the economic environment in Southern Europe, our businesses in Spain, Italy and Portugal performed relatively well.

Aegis Media has delivered total net new business wins of $2.4 billion during the first nine months of the year (2010: $1.6 billion), including net new business wins of $400 million in the third quarter of 2011 (2010: $650 million). New business wins during the third quarter were mainly local and national, but there were also several new business assignments for major international organizations like Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Disney, Expedia and P&G.

Aegis said it would use much of the cash generated by its sale of Synovate to make acquisitions that provide “scale, in-fill and innovation” to its media services businesses with “a specific emphasis on faster growing regions, North American and on digital businesses.”