Publicis Groupe announced cost cuts, including slashing management pay and shareholder payouts, as the advertising group prepares for the "greatest recession in living memory".
The French company says it can't provide earnings guidance because of the uncertainty of the oronavirus crisis.
"We are now all facing a crisis that will be unparalleled in terms of magnitude, complexity, and probably length," says CEO Arthur Sadoun.
He announced a €500 million (AUD853 million) cost-reduction plan with full impact in 2020. Dividends will be cut by 50% and payment delayed to the end of September.
The company management team is taking a 20% cut to fixed remuneration, the board 30%.
Sadoun was announcing first quarter results, showing organic growth at -2.9%, meeting intrenal targets. Net revenue was up 17.1% to €2.481 billion (AUD4.2 billion).
Organic growth was -1.9% in Asia-Pacific. China, the first country impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, was down by 15.3%. This was compensated by a strong performance in other countries of the region, including India with +12.7% organic and South East Asia countries as Thailand and Singapore. No mention of Australia in the results.
Regional results:
"First and foremost, we have been focusing on protecting our people," says Sadoun.
"We immediately acted to put in place the necessary infrastructure to enable all of our employees to work safely from home."
He says the company's response to the crisis is structured, multi-faceted and rigorously executed with impacts fel differently in various countries.
"Our experience in managing cost and cash in times of crisis, our country model and our strong balance sheet will help us to stand firm in this storm and prepare ourselves for recovery," he says
"There is no doubt that we are going through an unprecedented health crisis that will lead us to the greatest recession in living memory.
"It is too early to predict the full impact it will have on our clients and our business, so we will not provide any guidance.
"We have worked around the clock to help our clients adapt to this situation. We reviewed their current and future commercial and corporate messages. We realigned their media plans to be much more dynamic, deliver short-term ROI and proposed some outcome-based products we have developed for this new market context. We are also helping them accelerate their digital capabilities to drive growth and efficiencies."
Publicis breakdown of net revenue at March 31 by sector:
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