LONDON (Reuters) - WPP (WPP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's second-largest advertising firm, saw trading in April in western Europe return to similar levels as those in January and February, Chief Executive Martin Sorrell said on Thursday.
WPP's shares dropped almost 8 percent in April after the group released first-quarter results that showed revenue growth to be towards the lower end of forecasts after a slight slowdown in Western Europe in March.
But speaking at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit from a video link in London, Sorrell said it had since improved.
"March was a strange month," he said. "April came back, in other words, very similar to January and February," he said without giving any numbers or further information. "It was materially better than March."
Sorrell also said advertising markets in the United States had continued to hold up well and were performing better than most people had expected at the start of the year.
"For the first third of the year I think the U.S. has been better than Western Europe," he said.
WPP, whose agencies include JWT and Ogilvy & Mather, said at the time of the first-quarter results that indications continued to show the full-year like-for-like revenue growth growing faster than in 2007.
To boost its presence in the market research industry, which analysts expect to stand up well in any economic downturn, WPP has recently submitted two cash and share offers for Britain's Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).
But each bid has so far been rejected as too low and TNS has said it prefers instead to continue looking at a possible nil-premium merger with German firm GfK (GFKG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). It has said it will give an update on these plans shortly. Continued...
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