The company attributed this to unfavorable exchange rate conversions of 71 million euros and it had organic growth of 4.4 per cent. The company stated that it did particularly well in the US, Asia-Pacific and in Latin America. At the same time, while the European market did achieve growth as a whole, there continue to be differences among the countries and the European market does not yet show signs of significant recovery.

Latin America fared the best with growth of 21 per cent while Asia Pacific had a growth of 9.1 per cent. In Asia the growth was notably powered by China (20.2 per cent), Indonesia (55 per cent) and by Malaysia (27.7 per cent). As far as agency work for new accounts won was concerned Publicis highlighted Leo Burnett's handling of McDonald's in India and Thailand as being one of the strong points. Starcom MediaVest Group which deals with media counsel and buying was cited for the Coca Cola account in Hong Kong among others.

The company further stated that Ad Age and Lehman Brothers (New Business Scorecard) each ranked Publicis Groupe as first in new business worldwide category for the month of March and second worldwide for the quarter.

The company claims that it is on track to reach the operating margin target of 15 per cent for this year. Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Levy added that he was hopeful that the pace would pick up in Europe during the second part of the year.