• June 12, 2006

Two days before Aegis Group shareholders are set to vote on a controversial proposal to add new board members representing the interests of a French financer who also controls rival Paris-based Havas, the chairman of that French agency holding company said he has little hope of winning those seats. "We don't have much hope of being appointed," Vincent Bollore, chairman of Havas said this morning during Havas' annual shareholders meeting. Bollore, who vowed to continue seeking "long term" representation on the Aegis board, now controls 29.1 percent of the British media agency holding company. He also sought to assuage concerns that the lack of a strong connection between Aegis and Havas signaled a strategic drift for Havs, asserting that the French company is on track. During the meeting, newly appointed Havas CEO Fernando Rodes projected "stable results" for 2006 that would be in line with Havas' 2005 growth. Havas posted a 2.4 percent drop in organic growth during the first quarter of 2006, due largely to the loss of its Volkswagen account last year.