Shares in WPP (WPP) were marked up by around 6 per cent on the back of a better than expected third-quarter trading update. Revenues less pass-through costs rose by 3.7 per cent, on a reported basis, to £2.73bn. On a like-for-like basis, they ticked up by 0.5 per cent. When including the Kantar business – of which 60 per cent is being sold to the private equity firm Bain Capital – the like-for-like improvement was 0.7 per cent.
Analysts at Barclays had anticipated a net like-for-like sales decline of 1 per cent, and noted that the consensus forecast (according to ZoneFinance) had been for a decline of 0.6 per cent.
WPP pointed to an improvement in its major markets and sectors, with “significant” progress in North America and China. In North America, like-for-like sales less pass-through costs (and excluding Kantar) dipped by 3.5 per cent. At the half-year stage, the like-for-like decline here had been 6.9 per cent.