Aegis revenue up but growth will slow

Aegis, the media and market research group, registered a 9.7% increase in revenue for the three months to 30 September but expects growth to slow in the current quarter.

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The group, which owns media agencies Carat and Vizeum and market research firm Synovate, says that the economic environment means it is still difficult to forecast performance in a number of markets.

Jerry Buhlmann, chief executive officer of Aegis Group, says: “Short term visibility in a number of key regions remains relatively low, which creates challenges in precisely predicting how the advertising and market research sectors will fare in 2011.”

Revenue from media agency business Aegis Media grew 8.5% in the quarter, while market research business Synovate increased revenue by 11.5%.

The group says its UK operations registered a “particularly good performance” but did not provide figures.

Despite the cautious outlook, Aegis’ strong third quarter performance is in line with positive figures posted by marketing services groups WPP, Omnicom, Publicis and Havas in the past month.

Buhlmann adds: “We are seeing increasingly positive signals of confidence from our clients regarding their short-term advertising expenditure plans, supporting our cautiously optimistic view of the outlook for next year.”