Publicis Groupe predicts organic growth as Sapient acquisition swells first half revenues

Advertising holding company Publicis Groupe has said organic earnings are expected to pick up in the second half of the year as the inclusion of Sapient helped grow revenue by more than 35 per cent in the first half.

The agency group completed the acquisition of Boston-based Sapient Corporation in February for $3.7 billion. It has offices under the SapientNitro badge in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Revenue for the French company, which owns Leo Burnett, Starcom Mediavest and ZenithOptimedia among others, increased to 4.542bn Euros ($6.74bn) in the first half with net income rising almost 40 per cent to 363m Euros $538m. It reported organic growth of 1.4 per cent.