WPP sees organic sales slowdown in third quarter

Tougher comparatives led to a slowdown in organic growth at advertising and media giant WPP in the third quarter, though the company maintained its guidance for the full year.

The company, led by frontman Sir Martin Sorrell, said like-for-like (LFL) net sales grew at a 3% pace to £2.42bn in the three months to 30 September, slowing from the 4.1% growth seen in the first half. Analysts had expected around 3-4% growth in the third quarter.

Net sales on a reported basis were down 1.2% but up 6.1% on a constant-currency basis.

The company said it had seen some "softening" in LFL growth but maintained its forecast to increase full-year LFL net sales by "over 3%".

However, analysts at Liberum said that the outlook for the rest of the year was "conservative and suggests that sales in the final quarter of the year will show lower growth than the first nine months (3.8%)".

Nevertheless, WPP said it saw constant-currency growth across all regions and business sectors during the third quarter.

The company reported that growth showed some "slackening" in North America and the United Kingdom, partly offset by a significant increase in Western Continental Europe, with Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe similar to the first half.

Advertising and media investment management continued to show the strongest organic growth across the group of 17.1%.

The stock was more or less flat at 1,208p in early deals on Friday.