• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 22, 2015

Publicis Groupe reported organic revenue growth of 1.4% for the second quarter and 1.2% for the first six months, well below competitors reporting Q2 and six-month results so far including Omnicom and Interpublic. Organic revenue growth excludes the impact of acquisitions and currency fluctuations. 

But with a lot of help from acquisitions — notably its purchase earlier this year of Sapient — and the positive impact of foreign exchange rates, the Paris-based holding company was able to record a 38.5% spurt in overall Q2 revenue to more than 2.4 billion Euros (approximately $2.7 billion at Wednesday's exchange rates). 

Revenue for the first half was up 35.3% to more than 4.5 billion euros ($5 billion), while net income soared 40% to 363 million euros ($400 million). 

“Publicis Groupe has produced solid performance levels in the first half of 2015,” said Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy. “The combined effects of the Sapient acquisition, the strengthening of the dollar and the good work put in by our staff have considerably improved our key figures.” 

By region in the second quarter, the Groupe posted organic revenue growth of 1.5% in North America, 2.3% in Europe and 3.3% in Asia-Pacific. Latin America was weak, with an organic revenue decline of 5.3%. As was the case with other holding companies, LATAM performance was weighed down by the struggling Brazilian economy. 

Levy said that the company expects “accelerated organic growth” in the second half of the year, as well as double-digit increases in reported revenue, operating margin and earnings per share for the full year.