Omnicom’s Australia and New Zealand operations hit positive organic growth in the December quarter.
The result of “mid single-digit growth” was a stand out globally with all other regions recording negative growth.
The reason, CEO John Wren told analysts, was that Australian and NZ “have managed the pandemic relatively well”.
Overall, the global advertising group finished 2020 with organic growth continuing to improve sequentially.
For the fourth quarter, organic growth was a negative 9.6% compared to a negative 11.7% in the third quarter.
Over the three months to December, revenue fell 9.3% to $US3.757 billion. Net income was $US398.1 million, down from $US415 million in the fourth quarter of 2019.
In the US -- where PR was helped by election year spend and healthcare performed better than average -- the organic growth fall was 9.4%, an improvement of about two percentage points from the third quarter.
Europe continued to face significant challenges due to COVID in the fourth quarter. The UK was down 12.4% and the euro and non-euro markets were down 9.2%.
Asia had an organic growth of negative 3.9%, down from negative 12.8% in the third quarter.
Omnicom is optimistic of a return to growth and has approved an increase in quarterly dividend of $US0.05 per share, or 7.7%.
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