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LONDON (Alliance News) - WPP Monday reported higher profit for 2014, as the media buying giant reported further strong growth in emerging markets, but also a strong performance in the US and UK and a performance in continental Europe that belied the economic downturn in the region.

It reported a net profit of GBP1.08 billion, up from GBP936.5 million in 2013, as revenue grew to GBP11.53 billion, from GBP11.02 billion and its profit margins improved. The revenue growth came from both like-for-like growth and acquisitions, and came despite a 6.7% reduction due to exchange rate fluctuations. Its results met analysts' expectations.

WPP, which made 65 acquisitions and investments in 2014, also forecast similar growth for 2015, with like-for-like revenue and net sales expected to rise by over 3%. It is targeting a net sales margin improvement of 0.3 point, excluding the impact of currency.

WPP said that the "pattern" for 2015 looks similar to 2014, although without any events such as the World Cup to boost marketing investments. Its concerns for the year are centered around continuing fragility in the Eurozone, a "litany of woes" in the Middle East, a slowdown in emerging markets, the US's deficit and debt and the impact of Federal Reserve easing and tapering, and uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the UK's upcoming general election.

"Advertising as a proportion of GDP should at least remain constant overall, although it is still at relatively depressed historical levels, particularly in mature markets, post-Lehman. Advertising should grow at least at a similar rate as GDP, buoyed by incremental branding investments in the under-branded faster growing markets," it said.

Still, like-for-like revenue was up 6.7% in January, with like-for-like net sales up 3.9%.

"All regions, except Latin America, were up, with Asia Pacific and Africa & the Middle East up well above the average net sales growth. All sectors strengthened, with advertising and media investment management, data investment management and direct, digital and interactive, up the strongest," it said of the month.

WPP also sweetened the results for its investors, raising its dividend to its planned new earnings payout target a year ahead of schedule. It is paying dividends of 38.20 pence for 2014 as a whole, up from 34.21p in 2013, meanings it's paying out 45% of earnings, up from 42% in 2013.

"The achievement of the targeted 45% dividend pay-out ratio one year ahead of schedule now raises the question of whether the pay-out ratio target should be raised further, a question your board will be shortly considering," it said.

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Markets: UK shares trade lower as investors continue to entertain the potential for a summer rate hike by the US Federal Reserve and as focus shifts to Monday's Eurogroup meeting on Greece.

Wall Street is also set for a mixed start, with stock futures indicating that the DJIA will open flat, the S&P 500 slightly lower, and the Nasdaq 100 higher.

FTSE 100: down 0.6% at 6,873.25
FTSE 250: down 0.6% at 17,174.58
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 716.52
GBP-USD: up at 1.5097
EUR-USD: up at 1.0862
GOLD: up at USD1,174.61 an ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD59.34 a barrel
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Other Top Corporate News
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The UK government has sold off a further 1% stake in Lloyds Banking Group under a trading plan managed by Morgan Stanley, meaning the UK taxpayer now owns 22.98% of the bank's equity. News that the government's stake has been further whittled down comes just over one week since Lloyds resumed dividend payments for the first time since receiving state aid in the financial crisis of 2007-09.
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Vodafone Group said its M-Pesa mobile money transfer and payment service has launched its first international money transfer corridor between Tanzania and Kenya. M-Pesa customers in these countries can now use their mobile phones for money transfers between countries via a combined network of 180,000 agents. Vodafone claims its service is cheaper than existing services.
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Antofagasta said copper production at its Los Pelambres Mine in Chile has so far been reduced by about 5,000 tonnes due to ongoing protests that are causing limited disruption at the site. The miner said that a small group of protesters from the the local Choapa valley community established intermittent blockades at several points on the access road to the Los Pelambres mine late last month and have been there since. There has been damage to the office and minor equipment at the mine entrance and some facilities outside the mine limits have also been damaged.
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GlaxoSmithKline has fired more than 100 staff in China as a result of the internal investigation the drugmaker carried out into the corruption scandal in the country which last year resulted in it being hit with a GBP300 million fine, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The move is the biggest round of dismissals Glaxo has carried out in China since it was found guilty in September of bribing doctors to prescribe its medicines, the paper said.
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Hansteen Holdings said its pretax profit doubled in 2014, as it sold properties into the buoyant UK property investment market, and it raised its dividend and announced a special dividend as it also gave a positive outlook. The property investor reported a pretax profit of GBP131.2 million for 2014, up from GBP65.3 million, buoyed by the gains on property sales. Hansteen said it will pay a full-year dividend of 5.0 pence, up from 4.8p in 2013, reflecting the increased earnings, and will also pay a special dividend of 3.0p reflecting the profits it made on its property disposals.
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Telecity Group said it now has a definitive agreement on its proposed all-share takeover of European data centre services provider Interxion Holding. The British company had announced February 11 that it had agreed a deal to buy New York Stock Exchange-listed Interxion, with Interxion shareholders receiving 2.3386 new Telecity shares per Interxion share. Telecity shareholders will own around 55% of the combined group
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Balfour Beatty said it has been appointed as civil contractor to the Thames Estuary Asset Management Programme, a deal that it thinks will be worth up to GBP250 million to the company. The programme is about flood risk, and involves improving flood defences along the Thames Estuary. It is a GBP300 million programme in total.
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AIM Movers
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Eurasia Mining shares are up by more than half after it revealed it has received two approaches for an outright acquisition or acquisition of an interest in its Monchetundra platinum group metals licence on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The company said it has started commercial negotiations with both interested parties, and got good feedback from recent site visits to the project. Eurasia also said its review of new project opportunities has accelerated since it announced a collaboration with Metal Tiger in December. W Resources is up after it received positive bulk sampling results from the Régua project in Portugal, showing larger-than-anticipated sections at the surface of the ore body, which can be mined at a low cost. Transense Technologies shares are down sharply after it posted a widened pretax loss for the first half of its financial year, as revenue more than halved due to a "dramatic reduction in capital expenditure by the mining industry." It is exploring options including the sale of its IntelliSaw business after warning that it cannot be sure its second half revenue will be higher, or even equal, to its first half, and as a result its future cash position "carries significant uncertainty".
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Top Economics And General
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Greece must present further reform proposals under the terms of its bailout, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said, hours before his group of eurozone finance ministers was to resume talks about the cash-strapped country. Athens and its creditors agreed 10 days ago to prolong the European portion of the Greek rescue package, following fraught negotiations with the new government of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The country has hinted that it may face difficulties meeting major debt repayments this summer. But it cannot access the EUR7.2 billion remaining in its bailout package until it agrees reforms with its creditors - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
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A EUR1.1 trillion stimulus plan courtesy of the European Central Bank is set to be unleashed upon financial markets Monday, aimed at warding off the threat of deflation and building on the eurozone's newfound economic momentum. The ECB's plans to spend EUR60 billion a month on buying state and private sector assets - part of a landmark quantitative easing scheme - has already led to solid gains in European stocks. It has also pushed government bond yields in parts of the eurozone into negative territory, which should, in theory, promote investment.
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Eurozone investor confidence reached its highest level since August 2007, survey data from the think tank Sentix showed. The investor confidence index for March rose to 18.6 from 12.4 in February. This was the highest score since August 2007. Both current assessment and expectations strengthened strongly in March. The current situation index came in at 6.5, the highest since May 2014.
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Germany's exports declined at the fastest pace since August although a weaker euro is likely to boost shipments in months ahead. Exports dropped by a worse-than-expected 2.1% month-on-month in January, reversing December's revised 2.8% increase, data from Destatis revealed Monday. It was severe than a 1.5% fall forecast by economists. Imports fell 0.3% from December, confounding expectations for a 0.5% rise. In December, imports had decreased 0.7%. As a result, the trade surplus fell to a seasonally adjusted EUR 19.7 billion from EUR 21.6 billion in the prior month.
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The growth in the Irish construction sector eased sharply in February to reach its weakest in a year-and-a-half, as activity and new orders growth weakened, survey data from Markit Economics showed. The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 52.0 in February from 57.1 in the previous month. However any reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.
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China's trade surplus rose to a record high in February as exports surged due to the effect of the timing of the Lunar New Year, figures from the customs office showed. The trade surplus came in at USD60.6 billion in February, much more than the USD6 billion expected by economists. This was larger than the record high surplus of USD60 billion recorded in January and marked a new high. Exports rose sharply by 48.3% year-over-year in February, more than the 14% rise expected by economists. Imports plunged 20.5%, much faster than the 10% drop forecast by economists.
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Japan's gross domestic product expanded just 1.5% on year in the fourth quarter of 2014, the Cabinet Office said in a revised reading. That was well shy of forecasts for 2.2%, which would have been unchanged from the February 15 preliminary reading. GDP contracted 2.3% in the previous three months.
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A suspect in the killing of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov has confessed to the February 27 murder, according to Russian news agencies quoting Moscow judge Natalya Mushnikova. The man, identified as Saur Dadayev, stands accused of organizing and carrying out the shooting, which happened on a bridge near the Kremlin. Four others arrested in relation to the crime have denied responsibility. The five men were arrested in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, according to reports on Saturday. Ingushetia is one of the country's heavily Islamic republics in the Caucasus.
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The EU should have its own army, the leader of the bloc's executive said in an interview, reviving the long-debated idea amid fresh tensions with Russia. "Such an army would help us to shape a common foreign and security policy and to seize together Europe's responsibility in the world," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted as saying by the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times in GMT)

n/a EU Eurogroup meeting
14:00 US Labor Market Conditions Index
17:05 US Fed Minneapolis's Narayana Kocherlakota speech
18:25 US FOMC Member Mester speech
23:30 US Fed's Richard Fisher's speech
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Tuesday's Key UK Corporate Events

John Menzies - Full Year Results
Close Brothers - Half Year Results
Hill & Smith Holdings - Full Year Results
Ocado Group - Q1 Trading Statement
Bango - Full Year Results
Cairn Energy - Full Year Results
G4S - Full Year Results
Esure Group - Full Year Results
Inchcape - Full Year Results
Matomy Media Group - Full Year Results
Tyman - Full Year Results
Craneware - Half Year Results
StatPro Group - Full Year Results
Kalibrate Technologies - Half Year Results
SDL - Full Year Results
Prudential - Full Year Results at 0815 GMT
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events (all times in GMT)

00:01 UK BRC Retail Sales Monitor
01:30 China Consumer Price Index
01:30 China Producer Price Index
06:00 Japan Machine Tool Orders
07:45 France Industrial Output
09:00 Italy Industrial Output
12:00 US NFIB Business Optimism Index
12:55 US Redbook index
14:00 US JOLTS Job Openings
14:00 US Wholesale Inventories
23:50 Japan Domestic Corporate Goods Price Index
23:50 Japan Machinery Orders

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