Ipsos Posts 3.2% Revenue Decline, Predicts Gloomy 2009

Ipsos has reported a 3.2% decline in first half revenues to €447.8m, compared with the same period in 2008. The firm says it would be unrealistic to hope for the second half of 2009 to be much better.

Despite a slight slowdown in the decline in revenues on a like-for-like basis in Q2 to -4.6% compared with -5.1% in Q1, the firm said cumulative first-half revenues reflect the scale of the economic crisis and the resulting changes in client behaviour.

'Clients have adopted major procedures to optimise the value of the services they buy. In the research market, this has resulted in consolidation of research programmes, the desire to maximise use of available data, the choice of recognised service providers and a focus on growth markets,' the firm explained in a statement.

Interest in new solutions with a high level of technological content, allowing for the identification of new behaviour patterns among clients, consumers, and citizens was also cited as a growing trend.

For the period, gross profit was down 1.9% to € 279.9m compared with € 285.0m in H1 2008. Group net profit declined 34.2% to € 14.3m, while adjusted group net profit fell 8.6% to € 24.5m.

Growth remained positive in emerging markets, which now account for 27% of the group's revenues - compared with 25% in 2008 - with average organic growth of 3.5%.

In North America, business volumes fell by 3.2% following a 15.5% fall in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the situation in Western Europe deteriorated in the second quarter.

In terms of business segments, only the Opinion and Social Research business saw positive growth thanks to public sector spending holding up.

Advertising research suffered a decline in business volumes, primarily because of a rapid shift towards online data collection systems. Marketing research was negatively impacted by a number of clients either cutting back their research programmes or delaying decision-making.

'There are differing opinions about when the crisis will come to an end and what shape it will
take and how strong recovery will,' the firm stated. 'The process of consolidating client orders
between a small number of suppliers takes time and is unlikely to result in anything significant
until the start of next year.'

Web site: www.ipsos.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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