Havas revenues down, but UK holds up

Havas, the marketing services group that owns MPG, saw revenues slide 6% to €325m (£289m) after being hit by a cut in spending among financial and healthcare clients and the loss of the Dell account.

Its performance in the UK and Europe, however, remained steady considering the tightening global economy. The UK saw growth fall by a marginal 1.6%, with Havas Media, Euro RSCG KLP, Euro RSCG Life and EHS Brann agencies achieving positive growth.

The group, which is chaired by Vincent Bollore (pictured), says France managed to fair better than its competitors, while elsewhere in Europe, growth slowed considerably, particularly in the southern countries such as Spain and Portugal. Central European countries however are still posting growth.

In other results, it saw spend among financial clients go down 20%, while among healthcare clients spend was down 11%.

Havas says the group felt the impact of the loss of the Dell Asia Pacific account in June, which it expects to feel until the end of the second quarter of this year. Organic growth was also down 8.4% soaring the first quarter.

Its digital businesses however saw a 7% rise organic growth during the first three months of the year. Digital now accounts for over 16% of its total revenue.

In March, Havas reported that revenues increased 4.7% to euros 1.6bn (£1.1bn) last year.

In the UK, revenues increased 2% on an organic basis to €52m (£37m).