By Sabela Ojea

Omnicom Group logged a drop in profit in the latest quarter after booking costs from the acquisition of Interpublic, and said it is looking into how current macro economic events will affect its clients and business this year.

The New York-based advertising and public relations company on Tuesday posted a first-quarter net profit of $287.7 million, or $1.45 a share, compared with $318.6 million, or $1.59 a share, for the same period a year earlier.

Stripping out one-time items, the company's earnings per share came in at $1.70. Analysts polled by FactSet had forecast adjusted earnings of $1.65 a share.

Omnicom's selling, general and administrative expenses surged 38% to $117.9 million, the company said.

Revenue rose 1.6% to $3.69 billion, missing the $3.71 billion forecast by Wall Street.

"We are assessing the implications of economic and market events to determine how they will affect our clients and business for the remainder of 2025," Chief Executive John Wren said. "Uncertainty has increased."

Overall, Wren said that he believes the $13 billion deal for Interpublic, expected to close in the second half, will give the combined group opportunities for revenue growth and changes to expenses to drive increase profitability, earnings per share growth and free cash flow.

A combined entity would have net revenue of more than $20 billion, based on 2023 figures for each company, The Wall Street Journal reported in December. Their client rosters include Amazon, AT&T, PepsiCo, Unilever and Volkswagen.

Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 15, 2025 16:37 ET (20:37 GMT)

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