By Paul Sandle
LONDON (Reuters) -British ad group WPP returned to growth in the third quarter with a better-than-expected 0.5% rise in like-for-like organic revenue, boosted by a strong performance from its media-buying agency GroupM.
Shares in the company, which owns the Ogilvy and VML creative agencies, rose 5% to top the FTSE 100 after the update on Wednesday.
WPP said growth in North America, western continental Europe and India was partly offset by continued tough trading in China.
Chief Executive Mark Read said the Chinese consumer was not feeling confident and the market would remain tough for the rest of the year.
“In the short term, trading remains difficult, and that particularly impacts WPP, where we work with a number of luxury, automotive and fast-moving consumer goods companies, three sectors that are under some macro and competitive pressures,” he said.
The outlook for the U.S consumer was more mixed, with pressure persisting at the lower end, he added.
“Companies that have pushed too hard on price have found the market a little bit more difficult,” he said.
Despite the better-than expected quarter, WPP stuck to guidance for organic revenue to be between 1% lower and flat for the full year.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young)
