Havas Global CEO, Yannick Bollore´, says 2014 was a record year for Havas, which had one of the best organic growths in the industry with income from operations margin rising by 30 basis points, pursuing its constant upwards trend. "All over the world, our teams brought in what is undoubtedly the highest level of new business in the last few years," he says. "This excellent performance is underpinned by a sound and healthy financial structure."
Some of the 2014 highlights for Bollore´ include the continued introduction of Havas Villages across the globe, with the most recent being Chicago which was opened in February; the further acquisition of digital, technological and creative to build on these strengths within the group; partnerships with Universal Music Group to form the Global Music Data Alliance (GMDA), Twitter to form Socialyse as well as continued global alignments with Facebook and Google.
"Now more than ever, Havas is an efficient, agile, fully integrated and ideally sized Group with a global presence. We enjoy the trust of our clients and attract top talents in the industry. Our family shareholder structure guarantees our independence and allows us to develop a long-term vision of the future. Havas has never been in a better position to face the challenges ahead," continues Bollore´.
For Havas Southern African CEO, Lynn Madeley, these results highlight the combination of big agency thinking with local agency expertise, "These figures really underpin the importance of developing markets in the Havas Global Strategy, particularly of interest is the significance of the growth for Africa and APAC during 2014. In South Africa, we have not only launched a Media and PR Business in the last financial year, but we have also seen a 26.4% and a 20% revenue growth in Havas Worldwide and Havas Sports & Entertainment respectively. This growth in South Africa and the region is significant and we look forward to an even stronger 2015."
