Publicis Groupe Releases 2019 Full Year Results

Publicis Groupe have released its 2019 full year results. The results have been solid in what's been a transformative year. 

Publicis Groupe’s Supervisory Board met on February 5th, 2020, under the chairmanship of Maurice Lévy, to examine the annual accounts for 2019 presented by Arthur Sadoun, CEO and chairman of the management board.

Find the full report here and a webcast of the presentation here. 

Arthur Sadoun, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe: "2019 was a transition year when we completed our model. We acquired and integrated Epsilon. We changed Publicis Sapient's management and repositioned its operations around business transformation through industry verticals. We put in place a country model to foster cross-fertilisation across our expertise in creativity, media, data and technology. And while we were implementing our model, we continued to promote a new generation of leaders in strategic positions, in our most iconic brands, our biggest countries and for our top clients. All of these necessary changes, combined with the effects of our transition, had a negative impact on our organic growth in 2019. But our model is already delivering concrete results that make us confident for the future. Our reported growth of +9.3% with Epsilon reflects the shift in our revenue profile. We are posting strong financials, increasing our operating margin (1) by +11.6% and Headline diluted EPS (2) by +8.2%, while investing an additional c.100 million euros in our talents. Our model and our go-to-market demonstrate their attractiveness, as illustrated by the new business ranking: for the second year in a row, we are number one in the new business league tables. Now that we have completed our transformation in terms of assets and organisation, we are in position to deliver what our clients really need to thrive in a world increasingly dominated by the platforms, as we demonstrated in our recent wins with Disney and Novartis.

"In 2020 our priority is to deliver our organic growth recovery plan by progressively returning to growth in our traditional activities; preparing our future revenue streams with Epsilon and Publicis Sapient, and of course continuing to invest in talents and learning and development to strengthen our offer. We have taken great steps forward in our transformation journey. We are clear on the steps ahead of us and focused on execution. I would like to thank everyone at Publicis Groupe for their efforts and all of our clients for their trust."