Havas Group Reports 9.4% Profit Growth For 2014

Havas reported today that net income for 2014 grew 9.4% to 140 million euros (about $149 million at today’s exchange rate). Operating profit margin for the year was 14.1%, up three-tenths of a percent.

Last month Havas reported that it had a 5.2% full-year 2014 revenue gain to 1.865 billion euros (approximately $2.126 billion) and organic growth for the year of 5.1%. Fourth-quarter organic growth was somewhat lower than the full-year average, coming in at 3.5%.

Company CEO Yannick Bollore said the company believes that it will achieve a minimum of 3% organic growth in 2015. He said he was “very pleased” with last year’s results, which he said were a strong indication that the firm’s plan to integrate and collaborate better via the company’s “Village” concept was working.

The company reorganized into “villages” (essentially housing all assets in a given city at single large facility) is 26 locations in 2014. More are planned for this year including Amsterdam, Spain, and Chile.

Bollore also attributed the company’s success to its new mission of creating “meaningful connections between brands and consumers.”

On the media front, like other holding companies, Havas is shifting from a planning by media orientation to planning with an audience and content perspective.

With the recent completion of its tender offer for Havas shares the Bollore Group has increased its ownership stake in Havas from about 34% to 82.5%.

When it launched the tender offer last fall, the company said then that its goal was to acquire majority control of the firm with Havas remaining a publicly traded company.

A statement today from Bollore Group, which also announced full 2014 results, implied that the company did not anticipate as great a response to the tender offer as it received. It said that it intended “to keep a significant free float and is studying the ways and means to quickly expand the latter in order to maintain the liquidity of the Havas shares while keeping a majority shareholding.”

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