Publicis Groupe full year and fourth quarter results

February 10, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Publicis Groupe has reported results for the full year and fourth quarter ended December 31, 2011.

Publicis Groupe is the most active acquirer by volume in the Media and Marketing industry between 2009 and 2011 with 39 transactions, 24 of which were announced or closed in 2011. A list of Publicis Groupe acquisitions articles published on Fusion DigiNet is at the end of this article.

“In a context of sovereign debt crisis and economic slowdown, Publicis has not only outperformed the market, more remarkably it has improved on its own outstanding performance of 2010. The Group’s margin, which has improved very satisfactorily, is back on the 16% mark while we continued investment in technology and talent,” said Maurice Lévy, Chairman & CEO of Publicis Groupe. “We have continued to pursue our strategy of making targeted acquisitions in digital communications and high-growth countries.”

KEY FIGURES

ANALYSIS OF THE KEY FIGURES

  • Published growth             +7.3%
  • Organic growth                +5.7%
  • New Business (net)         $7.9 bn
  • Operating margin            +8.8%
  • Net income                         +14.1%
  • EPS                                       +12.3%
  • Free Cash Flow                 +9%

ACQUISITION ACTIVITY

Since the start of 2012, Publicis Groupe has made two acquisitions:

  • Mediagong in France: a digital agency specialised in digital strategy consulting, the social media,advergaming and mobile communications.
  • The Creative Factory in Russia: highly reputed in its specialized areas, namely, marketing, digital services, digital production and video. This Moscow-based agency will enable Saatchi&Saatchi to expand its foothold in Russia.

In addition to these two acquisitions, Publicis Groupe has launched a friendly takeover bid on Pixelpark, the independent German leader in digital communications.

Pixelpark’s core businesses range from the creation of digital brands, consulting, content management, the social media, mobile marketing, eBusiness solutions and data analysis and management. Publicis Groupe’s public offering has the support of Pixelpark AG’s Management Board and Supervisory Board. The bid will be tabled by the Groupe’s German subsidiary MMS Germany Holdings GmbH (MMS) registered on the Dusseldorf trade register under the reference HRB 50291. MMS will offer Pixelpark (ISIN DE000A1KRMK3) shareholders a consideration of 1.70 euro per share in exchange for their bearer shares of no nominal value. This offer is at a premium of some 28% over the estimated average share price of Pixelpark (1.33 euro) as traded on the German stock exchange during the three months up to January 20, 2012. The offer is scheduled to begin in mid-February. To date, the shares tendered by Pixelpark shareholders to MMS represent approximately 56.51% of the authorize share capital and voting rights. Among others conditions precedent, the bid will be subject to MMS acquiring at least 75% of the current share capital. The acquisition by MMS of the majority of Pixelpark shares must also be approved by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office.

On February 1, the Group announced the acquisition of Flip Media, one of the large digital agency networks in the Middle East. Flip Media is present throughout the digital chain, offering a comprehensive range of services from strategy, digital design and production, content to technological platforms. With an original, proprietary creation technology that has received many awards, Flip Media words with a number of emblematic brands.

Click here for the full Publicis Groupe announcement and fouth quarter information.

France, Paris

A list of all Publicis Groupe aquisition activity published on Fusion DigiNet is below.

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