Happy days are here again, says Aegis

Aegis Group PLC, one of Europe's largest media-services firms, said on Monday that an advertising recovery is noticeable around the world.

Doug Flynn, CEO, Aegis Group, said, the growth "is being led by the US and European markets, although growth in Asia-Pacific remains robust."

Aegis said: "It is clear that the global marketing recession - that began in late 2000 - is now over, with Europe belatedly joining North America and Asia-Pacific in recovery." The company said the US advertising market is showing "sustained strength with major advertisers' budgets looking firm."

Aegis unit Carat expects a 5.7 per cent growth in global advertising expenses during 2004, compared with its previous forecast, set in March, of 5.3 per cent. Carat is the world's largest independent media buyer.

Aegis, while predicting the recovery, cited Carat's recent winning bid for Procter & Gamble's (PG) North American advertising campaign. Aegis also said it will announce a number of "selective smaller acquisitions" in the coming months, saying it was "confident" the company's current performance will continue to improve.

The company expects the recovery to be fully underway in 2005, and raised its growth forecast to five per cent from 4.4 per cent.

The Aegis forecast follows those made by WPP and the Publicis group. In April, WPP Group PLC, the world's second-largest advertising and media-services conglomerate, said it expects global advertising spending growth of three to four per cent in 2004. In May, Publicis Groupe SA of France said it expected growth of between three per cent and 3.5 per cent.

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