WPP revenues up 1.8% for Jan-May 2010

According to a trade update released by WPP of their annual general meeting held in Dublin, worldwide revenues have gone up by 1.8% in the first five months of 2010. On a like-for-like basis, excluding the impact of acquisitions and currency fluctuations, revenues were up 2%.

The United States’ like-for-like growth continued through April and May, with combined revenue growth of over 7% and of over 5% year to date. The United Kingdom also showed continuous improvement this year, with revenue growth in both April and May estimated at over 4%.

In Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand continued to be the most affected, and South-East Asia registered sequential monthly improvement for the past three months; growth in May was almost 13%. This figure was attributed to performances of the network in Greater China, India, Singapore and Japan. Revenue growth in mainland China was over 7% in the first five months, with India even stronger at almost 12%.

All the WPP businesses, other than advertising and media investment management, showed very similar like-for-like revenue growth at 2% or just over, with advertising and media investment management slightly lower at 1.7%, and the latter being the stronger of the two.