• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 22, 2016

Havas Group reported first half revenue of 1.087 billion euros ($1.195 billion) for the first half of the year, up 5% with operating income of 137 million euro ($150 million), up 7%.

The French holding company said that first half organic growth was 3% with 3.4% growth in Q1 slowing to 2.7% in Q2.

Growth in North America also slowed, the company confirmed. NA Q2 growth slid to 0.3% from 1.2% in the first quarter.  First half growth in the region was 0.7%.

Addressing that slippage, Havas CEO Yannick Bollore cited a number of recent new business wins in the region that he stated would “bring a big boost to our North American business over the coming months.”

Among recent wins in North America were media duties for both Tracfone and Wallapop. The company also recently won global media duties for Swarovski and global digital, advertising and content duties for five consumer healthcare categories at pharma company GSK. Net new business for the first half totaled 1.587 billion euros (based on billings), or about $1.74 billion.

By region, Europe (outside of France and the UK) posted organic growth of 8.7%. APAC and Africa combined were up 6.7% and Latin America was up 6.2%.

Despite slowing overall growth, Bollore described the firm’s first half performance as “strong,” and “gives us every confidence our annual targets will be met.”  Last year the firm achieved 5.1% organic growth.

The financial update follows the company’s announcement yesterday that it was launching a third media agency network.