Advertising firm WPP Group said today its full-year profit climbed well ahead of expectations on strong growth in China, India and the United States.
The world's second-largest advertising company - home to ad agencies Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy & Mather and JWT - said pretax profit grew 36 per cent to £669 million.
Reported revenue rose 25 per cent to £5.4 billion - largely reflecting its acquisition of the US Grey Global business. Like-for-like revenue increased 5.5 per cent, with China up 23 per cent, India up 15 per cent and the United States - the world's largest advertising market - up nearly 6 per cent.
Shares climbed 6.2 per cent to 651 pence by 9.19am, topping the benchmark FTSE-100 index, after a 3.6 per cent decline yesterday, when Morgan Stanley cut its rating to "equal-weight" from "overweight".
WPP said it expects its business to grow by 4 to 5 per cent in 2006, ahead of the estimated increase of at least 4 per cent for the broader advertising and marketing sector.
January like-for-like revenues were up 5.5 per cent, and the company said it is confident it can achieve profit margins of 14.5 per cent in 2006 and 15 per cent in 2007.