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LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - WPP, the world's biggest
advertising company, lifted its full-year underlying net sales
guidance again on Thursday after third-quarter trading easily
beat forecasts on demand from the United States, Britain and
Germany.
WPP said its core metric, known as like-for-like revenue
less pass-through costs, jumped 15.7% in the third quarter, well
ahead of forecasts of 9.5% and almost 7% up on its performance
in the same quarter of 2019, before the pandemic.
The British group raised its full-year outlook for growth to
a range of 11.5% to 12%, from 9-10%.
WPP said in August it had returned to 2019 business levels a
year ahead of plan as clients rushed to benefit from a global
economic recovery from the pandemic.
"Our very strong performance goes well beyond a cyclical
recovery, with like-for-like growth over 2019 at 6.9% in the
quarter," Chief Executive Mark Read said.
"Clients across all sectors and geographies are making
significant investments in marketing, particularly in digital
media and ecommerce services."
(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Alistair Smout and Jason
Neely)