WPP Group H1 Profit Down, Revenues Rise; July Sales Up - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Advertising giant WPP Group Plc. (WPP.L, WPPGY) reported Wednesday that its first-half profit before tax fell 40.1 percent to 425 million pounds from last year's 710 million pounds.

Profit after tax of 282 million pounds was down 53.1 percent and earnings per share of 18.9 pence was down 56 percent.

The latest results included net exceptional write-downs of 122 million pounds, principally on the investment in comScore, in comparison to net exceptional gains of 203 million pounds last year.

Headline profit before tax was 690 million pounds, up 15.8 percent, and headline earnings per share of 39.1 pence was up 16.7 percent.

Revenues in the first half grew 11.9 percent to 6.536 billion pounds from 5.84 billion pounds a year ago. In dollar terms, revenues grew 5.2 percent to $9.367 billion, while it declined 4.9 percent in euro terms.

At constant currency, revenue was up 8.9 percent, like-for-like revenue was up 4.3 percent.

Further, the company announced dividends per share of 19.55 pence, up 22.9 percent, a pay-out ratio of 50 percent, in line with the revised target pay-out ratio of 50 percent.

Regarding the current trading, the company said July like-for-like revenue growth was 4.6 percent and net sales growth was 1.9 percent like-for-like, ahead of budget and the quarter 2 revised forecast.