Aegis’s loss was apparent through a combined drop in gross revenue from Aegis Media, which saw a 13.1 per cent plunge, and at its market research arm Synovate, which experienced a 9.1 decline.
Synovate’s net revenue was also down 12 per cent organically.
Synovate’s net revenue was also down 12 per cent organically.
“Approximately half of the organic revenue movement at Aegis Media was the result of the phasing of previously announced client losses in the US and Renault in EMEA,” the company said in a statement. “However, new business momentum has been very strong, with net new business wins of $1.05 billion in the quarter, including Kellogg's, Vodafone and Credit Agricole. These wins will start to benefit Aegis Media's performance from the second quarter onwards and should offset the impact of the earlier losses for the rest of the year.”
Yet Aegis still experienced year-on-year revenue growth of 4.8 per cent while Synovate saw gross revenue rise 9.6 per cent.
Aegis did not break down its performance by region.
The Group announced 800 job losses in March but is looking to lower costs by cutting executive bonuses, according to Western reports.
Aegis is nearly 30 per cent held by Vincent Bollore, who is the chairman of Havas. That company announced yesterday that its first-quarter organic revenue dropped 8.4 per cent from 2008, and noted organic revenue plummeted nearly 25 per cent in Asia-Pacific.
In comparison, Omnicom reported a 6.6 per cent drop in global organic revenue, WPP a 5.8 per cent drop, while Publicis Groupe and Interpublic Group’s figures fell 4.4 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively.
