Havas net revenue declines by 0.5% in Q3 2024

Havas’ net revenue declined by 0.5% in Q3 2024, from €654 million ($705 million) to €650 million ($700 million) year on year.

Parent company Vivendi declined to provide the agency’s organic growth year-on-year in Q3, which would strip out the impact of M&A activity and currency fluctuations. 

In Q2 2024, when Vivendi provided the figure, Havas' organic growth shrunk by 1.7%. 

By region, Havas performed well in Europe, with its net revenue increasing by 3.5% year on year to €320 million ($345 million). In Latin America, net revenue increased by 9.6% to €49 million ($53 million). 

Yannick Bolloré, chairman of Vivendi’s supervisory board, and Arnaud de Puyfontaine, chief executive at Vivendi, said Havas’s performance was “particularly driven by Havas Media and the Europe and Latin America regions”.

In North America, net revenue declined by 8.6% year-on-year to €219 million ($236 million) and in Asia-Pacific and Africa, it increased by 3.2% to €62 million ($67 million).

In the report, Havas detailed that the impact of acquisitions on net revenue was 3%, with notable contributions from Uncommon Creative Studio, Eprofessional, Shortcut and Ledger Bennett.

The report also detailed that the Havas Media division continued to be “dynamic”, while Havas Creative and Havas Health & You produced “mixed commercial performances”. 

During first nine months of 2024 net revenue increased by 2.1% year on year to €2 billion ($2.15 billion). 

Vivendi reported the project to spin off Havas continued to move forward. On 15 October 2024, the Vivendi Supervisory Board took note of the opinions given by employee representative bodies. 

Agreeing that a shareholders’ meeting should be convened on 13 December 2024, the first listing of shares will take place on 16 December 2024, should it be approved.