WPP pre-tax profits rise 23 per cent

WPP Group, owner of agencies including Ogilvy & Mather and JWT, has reported a 32% rise in pre-tax profits for the first half of the year to £254.8m, beating analyst forecasts of £250m, as reported in BrandRepublic. The company headed by chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, saw revenue rise by 22% to £2.47bn. On a like-for-like basis, excluding the impact of WPP's acquisition of Grey in March this year, revenue at the group was up by 6%. WPP saw new billings of £1.9bn in the first half of the year, and said it estimates that more than 35% of these wins were generated through the joint development of opportunities by two or more companies within the group. New business wins include Samsung and Unilever.