Havas has succeeded in restoring its post-tax profit for the first half of 2010 to the same level as it achieved two years ago, but on lower revenues. The modest profit recovery, announced today, was helped by an improvement in operating profit margins – reaching an unexciting 11.5% compared with just 10.2% in the same period last year.
Having suffered a fall in revenues in the first half of 2009, the position has improved a little since then. Nevertheless in percentage terms year-on-year revenue growth in 2010 was the lowest achieved by any of the major global groups on a constant currency basis.
Even after Havas included the benefit of a weak euro, its actual revenues grew by only a slightly bigger percentage than WPP achieved in the same period, and lagged some way behind everyone else.
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