Havas‘ revenue growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 5.5%, to 521 million euros ($675.8 million), the company reported Tuesday. For the full year, the Puteaux, France-based agency holding company’s revenue grew by 8% to 1.778 billion euros. On a dollar basis, revenue in 2012 was flat.
Organic growth – stripping out the impact of acquisitions and exchange rates during the year – was more modest for Havas at 1.1% for the fourth quarter of 2012, and 2.1% for the full year.
When converted to dollars by the Ad Age DataCenter, Havas’ revenue was flat at $2.287 billion in 2012, compared to $2.291 billion in 2011, reflecting a weakening of the euro against the dollar.
Havas CEO David Jones said in a statement that the group’s North America business strengthened in the second half of the year, and that performance was strong in Latin America and Asia.
Europe dragged down Havas’ organic growth, with a slight drop of 0.4% for the region in 2012, and a much steeper fall of 3.2% for the fourth quarter.
By contrast, Latin America and Asia each grew by almost 9% in 2012, and North America posted full-year growth of 3.3%. North America was also the only region to see higher growth in the fourth quarter, up 6.5%.
The company noted that digital and social media accounted for 26% of all Havas revenue in 2012.
Havas claimed net new business for 2012 of $2.15 billion, a 22% increase over 201. New assignments included global data duties for Unilever for the Havas Worldwide agency network, and a global integrated agency assignment for Louis Vuitton for BETC.
The company will publish its annual results, which will include income figures, on March 21.
This story originally appeared in Advertising Age.
