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LONDON (Alliance News) - Media buying giant WPP PLC raised its total dividend by 12% and forecast a year of growth in 2015 similar to 2014, as it met expectations for headline profit before interest and tax, and earnings per share for 2014.
WPP's headline profit before interest and tax figure excludes amortisation, impairment, gains on disposals or re-measurement of equity interests, write-downs, restructuring costs of shares of exceptional losses of associates.
WPP posted a headline profit before interest and tax of GBP1.68 billion for 2014, up from GBP1.66 billion in 2013, and in line with analyst expectations provided by the company of GBP1.67 billion.
It reported pretax profit of GBP1.45 billion, up from GBP1.30 billion a year before, on revenue of GBP11.53 billion, up 4.6% from GBP11.02 billion. Revenue was held back by the strength of sterling, and on a constant currency basis was up 11.3%, WPP said.
The company said there had been like-for-like revenue growth in all of its regions, with particularly strong performances from North America, the UK, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe.
WPP posted earnings per share of 82.4 pence, up 14% from 72.4 pence, and in line with analyst expectations of 82.2 pence per share.
The company proposed a final dividend of 26.58 pence, taking its total dividend to 38.20 pence, up 12% from 34.21 pence a year before.
WPP said its revenue in January was up 6.7%, with net sales up 3.9%, as it saw a strong start to the year. It said all of its regions except Latin America were up, with Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East seeing above average net sales growth.
It said its budgets for 2015 have been prepared on a cautious basis, and show like-for-like revenue and net sales growth of over 3%, and a target net sales margin improvement of 0.3 point excluding the impact of currency.
The company said in 2015 it will focus on growing its revenue and net sales faster than the industry average.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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