Publicis Groupe SA announced that the company's revenue increased 2.4% in the first half of 2002. Publicis is scheduled to close its merger with Bcom3 next week, which will make it the fourth largest
ad agency in the world. With that merger in mind Maurice Levy, Chairman & CEO of Publicis stuck to his guns for full-year projections: "The world economy is still slowing down. In the context of a
global business downturn, it is difficult to assess the outlook for the advertising market. Publicis teams have done remarkable work in improving both our growth and our profits so far this year. It
has not been easy. We successfully maintained our margins during the first half of 2002 at the high level of 2001. We believe we will be able to achieve the same high margins through year-end 2002.
Our priorities for the remainder of the year are focused on three objectives: to proceed with the integration of Bcom3 immediately after the closing, to protect our client portfolio by delivering the
highest levels of service and innovation, and to further increase our profitability. We confirm our objective of 15% of EBIT for 2003, following the integration of Bcom3. Publicis has successfully
outperformed the advertising market in 2002 in revenue growth, margin, and profit, and I remain totally confident in the outlook for the group's continued strong performance despite the difficulties
of the market."
