WPP Asks TNS for More Info, as Both Report Growth

Both TNS and WPP have reported healthy revenue growth in the first five months of 2008 - the former doing particularly well in the UK, balancing a slight decline in the US. Meanwhile Martin Sorrell has again asked TNS for more financial information.

TNS has grown its UK revenue by nearly 20% during the first five months of the year, and reported worldwide growth of 6% on an underlying basis, which it says is ahead of market estimates. North American revenues declined but are expected to pick up in the second half of the year.

Performance in Europe has exceeded expectations; while the firm's ALM region, including Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, has also continued to deliver strong underlying growth. The firm says that client spend in North America is expected to be stronger in the second half of the year, bringing growth in the region for the year as a whole.

The firm's Healthcare, Media, Consumer, Business Services and Automotive sectors all achieved strong growth, while its Technology division was impacted by a weaker performance in the US.

'Current forecasts indicate that we will deliver similar levels of underlying growth for the full year,' stated CEO David Lowden.

The firm, which has agreed on the terms of a £1.5bn merger with GfK, said its order book at the end of May remains considerably higher than last year. A general meeting to consider the merger will be held on 18 July.

TNS has so far fought off bids from rival WPP, claiming the approaches undervalue the business. Today, WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell has renewed his request for more information to enable him to weigh up whether to make a further offer for the company.

WPP said in a statement earlier that its organic revenue growth for the five months of the year was 4.5% (against analyst predictions of 4.9%), while total sales including acquisitions and currency fluctuations rose 15.6%.

Web sites: www.tnsglobal.com , www.gfk.com and www.wpp.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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