Publicis Affirms Revenue Growth Target

French advertising group Publicis reported a 4.6 percent rise in underlying revenue for the third quarter on Monday and kept its financial targets.

Publicis generated a turnover of 1.122 billion euros ($1.61 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30 against 1.013 billion in the year-ago period. The rise was 10.8 percent on a reported basis.

Publicis said it was confirming its target for 2007 underlying revenue growth of over 4 percent. It had previously forecast revenue growth in a range of between 4 and 5 percent.

It also confirmed the targets it had provided when it released its first-half earnings.

Publicis has forecast a drop of between 20 and 50 basis points in operating margin for the full year 2007, due to integrating its acquisition of Digitas, which has a lower margin than Publicis.

Publicis also has a target for a 2008 operating margin of 16.7 percent against 16.3 percent in 2006.