• February 9, 2006

A day after one French agency holding company - Publicis Groupe - reported record new business and strong earnings for the fourth quarter and full-year 2005, another - Havas - Thursday reported relatively mediocre results, though it did beat Wall Street analysts' forecasts for organic revenue growth. Havas reported total revenues of $503 million for the fourth quarter of 2005, an increase of 1.8 percent over the fourth quarter of 2004. However, revenues for North America declined 5.1 percent to $184 million. The U.K. (down 4.9 percent) and Asia Pacific (down 17.2 percent) also slid. For full-year 2005, Havas' revenues rose 2.5 percent to $1.751 billion. The earnings news follows a report by influential Wall Street securities firm Merrill Lynch that initiated coverage of Havas with a "neutral" rating, and cited weakness in its MPG media operations. -- Joe Mandese