Sir Martin Sorrell says financial forecasts improving
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WPP Group’s operating companies, which include Ogilvy & Mather and Mindshare, have raised their 2011 growth forecasts.
Chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell (pictured) said that the company had grown by 4.5% in the year to the end of October and he expected November and December trading to stay close to that rate, when speaking at a media conference yesterday (29 November).
Individual group companies had previously signalled that they expected to grow at between 3 and 4 % in 2011.
Sir Martin also said that there had not yet been any impact from the turmoil in the Euro Zone though it was causing “massive uncertainty”. WPP is headquartered in Ireland, one of the countries facing losing financial independence for taking an international bail out.
Territories driving WPP’s growth include the United States and China while there has also been an uplift in “traditional” advertising.
Sorrell says the group was now thinking about increasing the dividend for 2011.
WPP is also backing the launch of a new consultancy that is expected to be headed by Lord Peter Mandelson. The company is thought to be called Global Counsel LLP and WPP is expected to nominate Lord Mandelson as chairman. The peer’s former special advisor, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, is already named as chief executive.
YouGov Insight:
British Mindset
- 18% of smokers who are less well off (C2DE) are now smoking more than they did a year ago.
- More than a third expressed concern about teenagers hanging around their local streets, with slightly fewer than this (just under three in ten) mentioning the related problem of there not being enough for young people to do in their area.
- 55% of women aged 25-39 claim they have used their overdraft facility in the past 12 months, this compares to 46% of men who have overdrawn on their accounts in the same period.
- 74% of women surveyed are concerned about their own financial situation, compared to 68% of men.
- Young men aged 16-24 are most likely to enjoy going to the gym, with 56% of those surveyed saying that their gym experience is one that they sometimes or always enjoy.
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