Interpublic Group of Companies Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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April 24, 2025
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Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Interpublic Group First Quarter twenty twenty five Conference Call. All parties are in a listen only mode until the question and answer portion. At that time, if you would like to ask a question, you may press 1. This conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

Operator

I would now like to introduce Mr. Jerry Leshni, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Jerry Leshne
Jerry Leshne
SVP, IR at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. This morning, we are joined by our CEO, Philippe Krakowski and by Ellen Johnson, our CFO. We have posted our earnings release and our slide presentation on our website, interpublic.com. We will begin with prepared remarks to be followed by Q and A.

Jerry Leshne
Jerry Leshne
SVP, IR at The Interpublic Group of Companies

We plan to conclude before market open at 09:30 Eastern Time. During this call, will refer to forward looking statements about our company. These are subject to the uncertainties and the cautionary statement that are included in our earnings release and the slide presentation. These are further detailed in our 10 Q and other filings with the SEC. We will also refer to certain non GAAP measures.

Jerry Leshne
Jerry Leshne
SVP, IR at The Interpublic Group of Companies

We believe that these measures provide useful supplemental data that while not a substitute for GAAP measures allow for greater transparency in the review of our financial and operational performance. At this point, it is my pleasure to turn things over to Filip Krakowski.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Thanks, Jerry, and thank you all for joining us. This morning, I'll begin with a high level view of the quarter and progress on our transformation program, after which Ellen will add detail on our performance. I'll then conclude with an update on the tone of the business as well as on the status of our acquisition by Omnicom. Turning to Q1 results and starting with revenue, our organic revenue decrease was 3.6%, which is consistent with the outlook and phasing we shared with you earlier this year. Our revenue change was largely due to the impact of certain account activity over the previous twelve month period, which we've discussed with you on prior calls.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

As expected, those headwinds intensified sequentially from last year's fourth quarter due to the timing of trailing wins and losses. Our three largest losses weighed on growth by 4.5% to 5%, impacting results across a number of geographic regions and disciplines, notably The US, Europe and Asia Pac, and our IAC and MD and E segments. Trailing account losses were partially offset by sound underlying performance with notably strong growth once again by IPG Mediabrands, Deutsche and Golan, and regionally by growth in LatAm and our other markets group. By client sector, we had very strong growth with our tech and telecom clients, as well as solid increases in food and beverage and financial services. Turning to expenses and profitability in the quarter, our adjusted EBITDA was $186,500,000 with margin of 9.3%.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

That result reflects continued operating discipline by our teams and a strong start to the strategic restructuring program that we described in our February call. Adjusted EBITDA excludes charges for restructuring in the quarter, which as you've seen were two zero three million dollars of which slightly more than half is non cash. We also adjust for deal expenses related to the combination with Omnicom, which were $4,800,000 in the first quarter and which appear in our SG and A expense. The quarter marked meaningful progress towards the objectives of the transformational restructuring of our business by both enhancing our offerings and driving significant structural expense savings. Operating expenses in the quarter compared to a year ago clearly track to the strategic evolution of our model, with operating leverage in some areas alongside continued investments in technology to enable key platform services and solutions.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

As we outlined earlier this year, we're moving at pace to greater functional centralization, increasing offshoring and nearshoring of centers of excellence, and an enterprise wide focus on tech driven platform benefits in key client facing areas such as production and analytics, as well as corporate functions including finance and HR management. With the implementation of these changes well underway, we've identified further opportunities for transformation and structural redesign. With that increased scope, we currently expect the charges for restructuring this calendar year will be in the range of 300,000,000 to $350,000,000 a significant portion of which will remain non cash. That will in turn yield run rate annualized expense savings of a similar magnitude as the eventual charge. Very important to note that we continue to see almost no overlap between these actions as standalone IPG and the $750,000,000 of identified cost synergies that will result from the merger of our company into Omnicom.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

So the benefit of these increased structural cost savings should accrue to the newly merged entity in 2026 and beyond. Our diluted EPS in the quarter was a loss of $0.23 as reported due to the restructuring investment, while our adjusted diluted EPS was $0.33 Another important development during the quarter was that we were able to reinitiate share repurchases following the pause that had been required in connection with the early stages of the acquisition. Subsequent to our special meeting of shareholders on March 18, at which we received support for the transaction from over 99% of shares voted, we were able to reenter the market for 3,400,000.0 shares over the balance of the quarter, returning $90,000,000 to shareholders. Turning to our outlook, we know that macro developments and their potential ramifications have moved front and center for all of us. The impact of this uncertainty is not yet clear, and the implications vary widely for our clients across industries and geographies.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Our posture, as always, has been to stay close to our clients, especially in periods of heightened uncertainty. As of now, marketers appear to be in a phase of scenario planning, assessing the implications of possible changes to the flows of global commerce. And as they sort these developments, we know that, you know, we're all addressing these things and these changes that are taking place at speed. As we engage with clients in considering the decisions they may need to make when it comes to channel choices, investment levels, and the best mix of marketing disciplines required to deliver business outcomes, we will begin to get greater clarity on the impact of the macro on our sector. And we will of course update you on that evolving landscape.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Today, we can report that performance in Q1 has been fully consistent with what we'd expected, that we've not seen a marked change in client activity, and that we therefore remain on track with the full year performance targets for revenue and margin that we shared with you a few months ago, an organic decrease of 1% to 2% in net revenue due to trailing account headwinds and adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.6%. Should there be a slowdown, we've shown that we're capable of navigating challenging circumstances. We continue to provide services that marketers require in order to deliver sales and business outcomes regardless of where we are in the economic cycle. We also know that if the macro ultimately weighs on broader consumer sentiment and economic activity with a resulting impact to our revenue, we've consistently proven the benefits of our flexible cost model. We've also demonstrated our resilience in that we've rebounded strongly as we emerge from such cycles.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

We're entering this dynamic period with our program of strategic transformation and cost reduction well underway with strong underlying financial resources and both should further solidify our position at a time of growing uncertainty. I'll come back with an update on the status of the acquisition by Amnicom, the compelling growth benefits of the new company, and the resulting value creation we see in the combination. But at this point I'll turn things over to Ellen for a more in-depth view of our results.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Thank you. I hope that everyone is well. As a reminder, my remarks will track to the presentation slides that accompany our webcast. Beginning on slide two of the presentation, our organic decrease of net revenue in the quarter was 3.6%, which was in line with our expected performance for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was 186,500,000.0 and margin on net revenue was 9.3%.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

It's worth noting that Q1 is our smallest seasonal quarter for revenue, while our operating expenses are recognized more ratably across the year. Adjustments exclude our charges for restructuring of $203,300,000 amortization of acquired intangibles of 20,400,000 and $4,800,000 of deal expenses in SG and A related to our acquisition by Omnicom. Our reported loss per diluted share in the quarter was $0.23 while earnings were $0.33 per diluted share as adjusted. Below the line, we have adjusted for non operating losses from the disposition of non strategic businesses. We repurchased 3,400,000.0 shares, returning $90,000,000 We concluded the quarter in a strong financial position with $1,900,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet and with only 1.84 times gross financial debt to EBITDA as defined in our credit facility.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Turning to slide three, you'll see our P and L for the quarter. I'll cover revenue and operating expenses in detail in the slides that follow. Turning to first quarter revenue on slide four. Our net revenue in the quarter was 2,000,000,000 a decrease of 8.5% from a year ago. Compared to Q1 'twenty four, the impact of the change in exchange rates was negative 1.2%.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

The impact of our net divestitures, mainly RGA and Huge, was negative 3.7%. Our organic net revenue decrease was 3.6%. Further down the slide, we break out segment net revenue performance in the quarter. Our Media, Data and Engagement Solutions segment grew 2.2% organically. Strong growth at IBG Media Brands and growth at Acxiom was offset by continued decreases at MRM.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

The organic decrease at our integrated advertising and creativity led solutions segment was 10.3%. That performance largely reflects the decision of a single client in the healthcare sector, and to a lesser degree, generally soft performance across our creativity led agencies. We continue to have strong growth at Deutsche. At our Specialized Communication Experiential Solutions segment, our organic decrease was 2.4%. Modest growth in public relations, led by GOLAN's performance, was offset by decreases at our Experiential offerings.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Moving on to slide five, our net revenue change by region in the quarter. The U. S, which was 68% of our first quarter net revenue, decreased organically by 4%, reflecting the impact of certain accounts lost in late twenty twenty three and during 2024 that weighed on growth broadly across our domestic operations. IPG Mediabrands continue to post strong growth in the quarter. International markets were 32% of our net revenue in the quarter and decreased 2.6% organically.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

In The UK, which represented 8% of our net revenue in the quarter, the organic decrease was 6.1%, chiefly due to soft results across some of our advertising and experiential offerings. Continental Europe was 8% of our net revenue in the quarter and decreased 40 basis points organically, which was against 8.9% growth a year ago. Trailing net losses weighed on performance in the quarter across several national markets. In Asia Pac, which was 6% of net revenue in the quarter, our organic decrease was 9%. The loss of certain global accounts weighed our results across the region.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

In LatAm, which was 4% of net revenue in the quarter, we grew 3.1% organically. By market, our growth was led by Colombia, Chile and Argentina, while Brazil decreased in the quarter. Our international markets group, which consists of Canada, The Middle East and Africa, was 6% of net revenue in Q1 and grew 2.9% organically. Performance was due to strong growth in Canada. Moving on to slide six and operating expenses in the quarter.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Our fully adjusted EBITDA margin in the quarter was 9.3%. That's a decrease of only 10 basis points from a year ago, notwithstanding lower revenue. Our adjusted EBITDA margin is before expenses for our strategic restructuring and Omnicom deal costs and SG and A. Our charge for restructuring was approximately $2.00 $3,000,000 of which $109,000,000 is non cash. In general, expenses in the quarter reflect the continuation of our recent trend, with operating leverage on salaries and related expenses alongside increased investment in technology.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Our ratio of total salaries and related expenses improved 120 basis points to 70.9% of net revenue. It's worth noting that all the expense ratios are against our smaller first quarter revenue base. Compared to a year ago, we have leveraged on base payroll, severance expense, given the broader reset of our expense base and temporary labor, which was partially offset by higher expense for our performance based incentive compensation programs. We ended the quarter with headcount of approximately 51,550, an organic decrease of 6.5%. Our office and other direct expense increased as a percent of net revenue by 120 basis points to 16%.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Occupancy expense decreased by 10 basis points as a percent of net revenue, while all other office and other direct expense increased by 130 basis points, mainly due to higher levels of investment in technologies driving the enhancement of our services and the transformation of our company. Our SG and A expense was two percent of net revenue compared with 1.7% a year ago, with Omnicom deal costs contributing to the increase in the quarter. Turning to Slide seven, we present detail on adjustments to our reported first quarter results in order to give you better transparency and a picture of comparable performance. This begins on the left hand side with our reported results and steps through to adjusted EBITDA and our adjusted diluted EPS. Our expense for the amortization of acquired intangibles in the second column was $20,400,000 Charges for restructuring were $203,300,000 Deal costs pertaining to the planned acquisition by Omnicom were 4,800,000.0 Below operating expenses, our net loss due to the sales of nonstrategic businesses was $36,400,000 At the foot of the slide, you can see the after tax impact per diluted share of each of these adjustments, which bridges the first quarter diluted loss per share as reported of $0.23 to adjusted earnings of $0.33 per diluted share.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

On Slide eight, we turn to our cash flow for the first quarter. Cash used in operations was 37,000,000 compared with $157,400,000 a year ago. As a reminder, our operating cash flow is highly seasonal. We typically generate significant cash from working capital in the fourth quarter and used cash in the first quarter. During this year's first quarter, our working capital use was historically low at $86,100,000 It's worth noting that cash from operations before working capital changes was $49,100,000 in the quarter.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

In our investing activities, we used $58,200,000 in the quarter for acquisitions and CapEx. Our financing activities in the quarter used $248,000,000 primarily for our common stock dividend and share repurchases. Our net decrease in cash for the quarter was $319,800,000 On slide nine is the current portion of our balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $1,900,000,000 of cash and equivalents. Slide 10 depicts the maturities of our outstanding debt and our diversified maturity schedule.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Total debt at quarter end was $3,000,000,000 and our next scheduled maturity is not until 2028. In summary, our strong financial discipline continues, and the strength of our balance sheet and liquidity means that we remain well positioned both financially and commercially. And with that, I'll turn it back to Philippe.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

As we've mentioned, the results we're reporting today are consistent with our forecast coming into the year. Against the net account headwinds driven in large part by three significant losses in 2024, the underlying business is sound with growth of between 11.5% on a net basis. Notable strength was evident in our media offering where we've been building proprietary trading capabilities. Other areas of growth included Deutsche, Golin, our IPG level production unit, and Acxiom. The impact of our large reversal with a healthcare client in the consumer advertising space in 2024 weighed on FCB and IPG health, which otherwise showed solid top line performance.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

In terms of profitability, we continued to demonstrate discipline, as you can see in our margin delivery adjusted for the cost of the transformation program that we're undertaking. And specific to that program, we made a strong start to the restructuring efforts in both corporate functional areas as well as centers of excellence focused on delivery of services to clients. The benefits of that program look as if they will exceed our initial forecast with the upside accruing to the newly merged company once our transaction with Omnicom is complete. Since as we said earlier, there's almost no overlap between our efforts and the cost synergies that have been outlined as part of the integration of the two companies. Turning now to specific highlights from the quarter, operationally we've entered the year with a kind of consistently strong levels of industry recognition that we're known for and which validate the competitive strength of our offerings.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

On Fast Company's list of most innovative companies, which was announced during the first quarter, IPG was better represented than any other holding company group with five of our agencies at the top of this ranking including FCB, Golan, Martin Agency, McCann, and Weber. Just last week, we announced the appointment of a global head of AI commerce to advance our delivery of agentic commerce solutions, a new offering that enables clients to grow profitable share across omni channel media. The remit for this role includes integrating market wide data signals provided by Intelligence Node, the acquisition we announced late last year, into these platforms and deepening our strategic partnerships with key players in the commerce ecosystem to create a more robust and cohesive suite of commerce solutions for our clients. This strategic move underscores our commitment to leveraging AI to enhance commerce and deliver superior results for our clients. The combination with Omnicom and their complementary capabilities, like their flywheel platform, will further position us as a leader in innovation that can drive sales and business results for marketers in the commerce space.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

During the quarter, we also launched AI console, a personal AI agent available to all of our employees. AI console is part of our interact marketing platform that enhances productivity by enabling users to create custom AI agents for the full range of capabilities we provide for our clients such as summarizing media plans, drafting press releases, and generating image mock ups to name just a few examples. Beyond the foundational use cases that Mediabrands and Acxioms have pioneered for us in AI through our Interact software platform, there are now thousands of interpublic practitioners using Interact and soon AI console to leverage AI to improve efficiency and creativity across all areas of our business. Within our MD and E solutions, I mentioned Acxiom which saw renewals in the quarter and new business wins with clients in the telco, CPG, financial services, insurance and healthcare sector. Nielsen and Acxiom also announced a new collaboration whereby Nielsen will sync Acxiom Real ID into their system for cross platform and data driven linear media.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Acxiom and Snowflake signed an expanded multi year partnership agreement to power cloud modernization and data collaboration as well as AI for leading brands. This allows clients to maximize the power of their first party data in marketing while safeguarding privacy and security. Media Brands, as you've heard, posted strong growth in the quarter due to good regional new business across global markets and at all three of our media agency brands. MediaPost also named IPG Mediabrands as its media agency of the year. And Mediabrands and are finalists for CAMPAIGN's Global Agency of the Year awards. In the

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

IAC segment, we shared previously that as part of its global consolidation review earlier this year, Kimberly Clark expanded its partnership with Interpublic with an integrated holding company solution led by FCB. FCB retained its top position in the One Club for Creativity's Global Creative Rankings. This was announced earlier in the quarter. And FCB finished twenty twenty four's Agency Network of the Year and FCB New York was again named Global Agency of the Year. In our healthcare space, IPG Health was named Network of the Year by Advertising Health and a number of its agencies led across a range of award categories and in the Agency of the Year distinctions.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Forrester released its 2025 Evaluation of Marketing Creative and Content Services. And McCann was recognized in that ranking as a strong performer, setting the standard for creative vision with its mission to build enduring platforms through its truth well told methodology. Among our US based creative agencies, the Martin agency saw wins in Q1 with Hershey's and Ulta Beauty. And Deutsch earned a spot on Ad Age's prestigious twenty twenty five A List. Within our SC and E segment, Weber Sandwich recently launched the Weber Advisory which is an integrated data and technology enabled corporate advisory powered by our AI and tech platforms.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

This integrates Acxiom's data spine to transform how organizations use data, technology and AI in their earned, owned and social media campaigns. IPG, Acxiom, a number of leading social networks are also collaborating to develop capabilities designed to help marketers identify relevant and engaging creators and influencers and match them with their specific target audiences. This solution leverages Acxiom's real identity to address the challenges of effective creator identification. By focusing on audience engagement, we're able to improve business outcomes in this high growth area. At the PR Week Awards, Weber was named Agency of the Year and Golan won a range of awards including Best Promotional Event for Grubhub, Best in Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Media for Verizon, Best in Employee Engagement for McDonald's, and Best Global Campaign again for McDonald's.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

In the experiential marketing space, campaign named Momentum its Experiential Agency of the Year for the second year running. The agency created a heralded ultimate fan experience in the final four with Coca Cola, Powerade, and GEICO. Octagon continues to excel in sports and entertainment, which is an area that is highly differentiated for inter public and part of a sector within marketing that continues to grow in importance. The agency recently secured landmark partnerships for Bank of America and the Home Depot with US Soccer following their inaugural partnerships with FIFA for the twenty twenty six World Cup. These multi year agreements represent two of the largest long term investments in US Soccer history.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Pivoting now and looking forward, we did not see anything in the first quarter or in April that would cause us to reconsider our expectations for the year, but we remain focused on delivering against the revenue and margin targets shared with you on our call in February. Strong Q1 growth at a number of our agencies mitigated the impact of the three large 2024 losses that as we've indicated will mute organic revenue performance this year. And in terms of profitability and cost management, we had begun to right size over the course of 2024 with associated elevated expense and have now made strong progress in the transformation program we announced at the beginning of the year which speeds our progress on strategic centralization and platforming. The macro is increasingly volatile, however, but we are staying very close to our clients as they plan for contingencies in light of the rapid pace of change and resulting uncertainty that we are all seeing. As we've seen in past periods when confronted with challenging economic crosscurrents, the impact on our clients can vary widely.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Some client industry sectors benefit from greater flexibility in their own operating models or greater access to localized or alternative sourcing or geographic exposure that can be beneficial in relative terms. Though consumer sentiment has been resilient to date, confidence is not at the levels we were seeing at the end as we entered the year. For many marketers, that may require a shift in products and services and the potential for the greater emphasis on value. With our great resources in terms of talent, technology, and data, we are well positioned to help our clients should they need to activate a shift in focus, channels, and marketing activity. And as clients look to invest in marketing that directly impacts sales, Acxiom is a key factor in how we can help businesses win.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

With this data foundation, our agencies and clients are operating on InfoBase, the world's largest, most secure, and most trusted core identity resource outside the walled gardens. Companies can get a single view of the consumer which in turn leads to increased precision and personalization in all marketing disciplines leading to conversion with customers. Some of our competitors are prone to sound bite commentary when it comes to the benefits of their approaches or assets in the data space. Yet despite what they claim, there is no better data asset than Acxiom when it comes to delivering precision, transparency, and trust. Acxiom maintains direct integrations with a full range of media publishers, DSPs, SSPs, and marketing technology platforms giving it end to end connectivity across the entire media and tech ecosystem.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

We align the cadence of data refresh to the source systems of data that are relevant to a specific client and marketing situation, which means we refresh data anywhere from real time to weekly depending on the data type and use case. And through our proprietary Acxiom assets and our connected tech platform ecosystem, we reach virtually every addressable person and audience globally. The noise about reach as a percentage of global population is just that. What's key to sophisticated marketers is calibrating the right message to the right audience in the most effective omni channel environments, whether that's paid media, the earned world of influencers, retail media networks, or clients' owned properties and channels. In partnership with leading social media networks, we help clients identify the brand safe creators and influencers with the highest relevance and business impact for their growth audiences.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

So Acxiom's data and tools our Real ID identity resolution capabilities, combined with interpublic agency expertise are what help us deliver measurable ROI. And that's vital in the current environment, which is why Interpublic continues to be a trusted partner at the heart of the growth agenda for many of the world's most ambitious businesses. In terms of the acquisition by Omnicom, both companies garnered very strong support in our shareholder votes, and you know that we've cleared the regulatory bar in five jurisdictions. Across the board, clients continue to share that they're looking forward to the benefits we will be able to deliver to them once our resources, geographic strengths, and company cultures come together to create an unmatched portfolio of talent, services, and products. Our complementary capabilities will be underpinned by the most advanced sales and marketing platform in the industry, supercharging our creativity and delivering superior data driven outcomes for the brands we work with.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

We remain confident regarding the completion of the deal in the second half of twenty twenty five, as well as in the value that the new entity can create for all our stakeholders. With that, I'd like to thank our partners and our people for their continued support and those of you on this call for your time. Let's now open the floor to questions.

Operator

Thank you. To ask a question please press 1, unmute your phone and record your name clearly. Our first question comes from David Karnovsky of JPMorgan. Your line is open.

David Karnovsky
David Karnovsky
Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan

Hi, thank you. It would great if you could dig in a bit more on the types of conversations you're having with clients right now, kind of recognizing that's going to differ a lot based on the vertical and geography. And curious how marketers are thinking about deploying media spend. I know you mentioned no marked change in activity, but kind of assuming that's a comment on overall levels. Are you seeing any shifts within total outlays?

David Karnovsky
David Karnovsky
Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan

So for instance, are clients pulling dollars from brand channels and into performance or maybe putting greater reliance on principal media buying just given the uncertainty? Thanks.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Sure. No, I mean we haven't seen that change. So I think if you were to strip it back as you asked the question, the media market has been steady thus far into April. So we're basically not seeing the shifts you're talking about. And so kind of existing trends unchanged kind of across all of the channels, whether that's linear, digital, streaming or otherwise.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

I think that the conversations with clients go to some of what I tried to outline in the prepared remarks, which is that everybody is sort of polling, monitoring for sentiment. I think the consumer has been resilient thus far. Obviously, the rate at which the sort of policy uncertainty clearly is something that everybody kind of filters through whatever they are thinking about, right? So if you think about groups with international sourcing, sort of client organizations, they are thinking about we've had something happen a few years ago where everybody thought about their supply chain. And as you remember from that, the supply chains were resilient for quite some time.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Then you think about specific industry sectors that might also be impacted. But at this point, it's what we said, which is that you've got clients thinking about contingencies. We're going to sort of look bottoms up. I mean, when you think about prior cycles, if the economy slows, from a discipline standpoint, where would we see it? We would see it in projects because they're somewhat more discretionary.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

To your point, we might see it at kind of digital spend that you can action more quickly. But at this point, is is very focused and everybody is trying to understand when there will be some measure of clarity and the changes are are are fairly significant and they happen on a sort of weekly if not quicker than that basis. So I can't really give you more than either how we're thinking on the media side, what are we seeing, on the consumer side, are we seeing specific to clients and their industry, their sector, their business model. And everybody is clearly focused on it and there are a lot of discussions about what it is that is available to us. Are we seeing significant moves, to your point, to different channels or different tactics, disciplines? Not at this point.

David Karnovsky
David Karnovsky
Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan

Okay, thanks for that. And then, just can you expand a bit on the SC and E segment in the core? I think Ellen noted experiential off. I know events can be choppy, but it's also, you know, we would think one of the more discretionary offerings you have. So just wanted to understand a bit better the trend in that segment relative to the prior several quarters.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Look, mean, I think choppy is a good word for it. I mean, is clearly choppier. It is the segment in which you would see more project spend. Those are, I think we called out for you that PR grew. Golan was the key driver of that.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

And what you then have are three businesses that are not don't have such scale that you don't have specific client specific events that would kind of drive that contraction. I don't know if Ellen has any.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

The only thing I would add to that is their performance was as we had expected entering the year, so there was nothing that changed due to the macro that we're talking about.

David Karnovsky
David Karnovsky
Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan

Thanks for that clarity.

Operator

Thank you.

David Karnovsky
David Karnovsky
Senior Research Analyst at JP Morgan

All right. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Jason Bazinet from Citi. You may go ahead.

Jason Bazinet
Jason Bazinet
Analyst at Citigroup

I just had a quick question on working capital. You called out that low capital use in the first quarter. But I was just going back at my model. I haven't seen a number that low in over twenty years. So can you just unpack that a bit?

Jason Bazinet
Jason Bazinet
Analyst at Citigroup

Has anything changed in the way you're running the business? Or is it account loss related? Or what drove such a small number?

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

First of all, thank you for the question. And thank you for noting the historical low. However, as we say every quarter, working capital is volatile. We're very disciplined on how we manage it. That doesn't change from quarter to quarter from when we onboard a client to the management of payables, extreme discipline and really consistent processes.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

It's just volatile. And whether you get paid on the thirtieth or the thirty first or the first or the second makes a big difference. This quarter, there was a slight influence from the restructuring that benefited a little bit, but it still was a low. But I don't think anything structurally changed. I think you will see the volatility continue.

Jason Bazinet
Jason Bazinet
Analyst at Citigroup

Okay. Thank you.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Cameron McVeigh from Morgan Stanley. You may go ahead.

Cameron McVeigh
Cameron McVeigh
Vice President - Equity Research at Morgan Stanley

Hi, thanks. Just had a couple.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Hi, Cameron.

Cameron McVeigh
Cameron McVeigh
Vice President - Equity Research at Morgan Stanley

Yes, was curious how you'd characterize the the pricing environment and how you're thinking about how pricing power is trending in the industry in IPG specifically. And then secondly, you know, the latest on any potential conflicts you may have seen with the transaction with Omnicom and whether that has impacted guide or expectations at all. Thanks.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

On the latter, I mean, we are now five months in, right? And I think that we've been clear throughout that the industry has come a long ways relative to the conflict issue, the nature of what we do, the services we bring kind of were core to how companies do more than quote advertising, but ultimately really how they go to market across a range of marketing and sales channels. So at this point, we we've not seen anything in that regard. You know, it's hard not to then be superstitious and say, hold on a minute. Why did you ask me that question?

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

But clients, as we've said throughout, are very supportive. See that there are going to be meaningful benefits whether it's in terms of the range and sophistication of offerings, inclusive of media, which maybe goes to the question you asked, the first part of your question, the geographic complementarity, just a lot of the things that we've called out about the benefits of bringing range of capabilities that is both very, very broad and very, very forward looking and then being able to continue to invest behind those. So as we said, we stay close to clients independent of the macro. But so far, all the signals there are positive. And then on your pricing question, I think we've been answering versions of that question for some time as an industry, right, where there was the kind of, hey, to what extent is procurement a part of the conversations?

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

To what extent do you have to demonstrate to clients that they're getting better, but they're also getting better with the benefits of efficiencies. So I don't know that we are seeing anything and I will happily ask Ellen to jump in on this. But I don't think we are seeing anything that is sort of out of line with a sort of fairly long standing trend line for the industry.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

No, I completely agree. It's been competitive and it remains competitive, but that's just part of the business.

Cameron McVeigh
Cameron McVeigh
Vice President - Equity Research at Morgan Stanley

Thank you.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Nathanson from MoffettNathanson. You may go ahead.

Michael Nathanson
Analyst at Moffettnathanson LLC

You, Michael. Good morning, Phil. Good. Philippe, I have a question for you. I asked John this question as well.

Michael Nathanson
Analyst at Moffettnathanson LLC

Given the opportunity to create a bigger and better company, I kind of wonder what's new business activity look like in terms of pitches? I would think as clients have await this combination, I would hold off looking for new partners. So can you talk a bit about the environment you're seeing in your business activity for you all? And then Ellen, on the headcount changes, is there any way to dimension how much of that is organic versus tied to dispositions on those assets? Thanks.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

All right. I'll let Ellen take that one and then I'll jump back in.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Sure. We said that the organic change was 6.5. So that was part of the prepared remarks. And we are very focused as part of our transformation efforts on many things and many ways of becoming more efficient. Part of that is a focus on greater centralization.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

We began that process well over a year ago by implementing common systems and technology. And now we're moving from a much more of a federated approach to a much more centralized operating model for many of our support functions, including finance, HR and IT. We're also really looking at standardizing processes and creating centers of excellence, which will continue to yield greater efficiencies and give us more of an opportunity to focus on right shoring. In addition, on the agency side, we're really focused on driving platform benefits in key client facing areas such as production and analytics. And we're streamlining and simplifying certain of our organizational structures, really optimizing spans and layers of management.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

So that's really where you're seeing the organic change coming from.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

On your question around kind of new business, I think what's interesting is that it's business is definitely the environment is I'd say sort of moving along. It's kind of happening at a level that's sort of a mid range level. I think the macro might play a role as well and then if you sort of think about when we've gone through more challenging economic cycles and given that there's a lot of uncertainty out there right now, it does beg the questions about whether or not a marketer wants the incremental sort of challenge of changing partners or assessing partners. And then as I think you've probably heard or read, John and I have spent some time with the intermediaries who clearly run a lot of those processes so that there can be clarity on their part in terms of, you know, kind of how we see the world and ultimately the ways in which the combined company will stand out. And as we've said, we believe will bring an unmatched set of capabilities and skills.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

But we've also reiterated that in the interim and until such time as we get all the way through regulatory, it's business as usual. And so if you are going to be in market, you clearly should consider both companies. Interestingly, I guess I misspoke because as we were here, we just cleared sixth. So Singapore just gave us the green light. So I would say that new business activity industry wide is solid, TBD whether or not the macro will impact it.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

And then clients are pretty thoughtful. They are very sophisticated and they understand what the benefits will becould be when our companies come together. If that informs their decision about how and when to think about who their partners should be, that's clearly a decision that they will make. But we're not seeing dramatic change based on that. Thanks. Sure.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Daniel Oddsley from Wells Fargo. You may go ahead.

Daniel Osley
Daniel Osley
Vice President, Equity Research at Wells Fargo

Thank you. A question on margin. Should we think about the margin impact of the restructuring actions you've taken to date and we'll see over the remainder of the year? And how much of the run rate savings will you capture in this fiscal year? And then as a follow-up, what areas drove the upside to the restructuring savings target?

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

I'll let Ellen start.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Sure. So when we announced the transformational efforts or the restructuring in February, we said the in year savings would be $2.50. We've now increased the amount of the expected charge to 300 to $3.50. And on a run rate annualized basis, we're also increasing the benefits we're seeing to at least 300 to $350,000 which we say will accrue to the newly larger organization. And there's very little duplicational add with the $750,000 that is related to the Omnicom acquisition.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

We are just all the areas that I outlined, we're just seeing more opportunities, and we're moving at speed to achieve them. So whether that's the centralization, whether that's optimizing spans and layers of management, whether that's streamlining, more opportunities to reduce our real estate footprint as well as rationalizing underutilized assets. So the more we're getting into the transformation efforts, the more opportunity we're finding and we're moving at speed to capitalize on them.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

There's nothing net new in terms of an area of focus for us in terms of where we're centralizing, how we're standardizing, kind of where we're thinking about offshoring or what you could refer to as platforming. It's just that as the work has begun, we've just seen more opportunity to rethink, whether it's structures or really whether it's ways of working. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Julien Roch from Barclays. You may go ahead.

Julien Roch
Julien Roch
Analyst at Barclays Capital

Yes. Good morning, Philippe, Helane, Jerry. Thanks for taking my questions. No strategy, only numbers. So can we have an idea of how much of the 300 to $350,000,000 restructuring is cash versus noncash?

Julien Roch
Julien Roch
Analyst at Barclays Capital

Looks like it was around fifty-fifty in Q1, but for full year and for next year. First question. Then when will this cash restructuring take place, all in 2025 or some in 2026? Can we have an idea of the phasing? And then an idea of the timing of the benefits between 2025, '20 '20 '6 and 2027.

Julien Roch
Julien Roch
Analyst at Barclays Capital

And then on FX, if the rate or the exchange rate don't change at all for the rest of the year, can we have an idea of the impact Q2, Q3, Q4? Thank you.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Good morning. Start with the FX, which if the rates continue, we're projecting about negative 60 basis points for the full year. As far as the timing of the savings in cash and noncash, I'll start with cash and noncash first. I would expect the ratio that you saw in Q1 to continue through the full program. We're expecting to complete our program by the end of the year with the majority of the expense takeout or the charges to be realized in the first half.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

The savings for the in year are we believe as we originally, but with larger savings on run rate basis in '26 and beyond. They are structural savings that they should be enduring.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Yes, they're structural.

Julien Roch
Julien Roch
Analyst at Barclays Capital

Okay, but we're not going to get the whole $303.50 in '26, right? I mean, if you had to venture, how much of that we'll get in '26 versus later?

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

The approximate $2.50 is what we're saying for '25, and the 300 to $3.50 should be in '26. And recurring beyond.

Julien Roch
Julien Roch
Analyst at Barclays Capital

Okay. So we get the whole benefit from '26 and then obviously same number going forward. All right. Thank you very That's correct. You.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our last question comes from Craig Huber of Huber Research Partners. You may go ahead.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Hi, Craig.

Craig Huber
Equity Research Analyst at Huber Research Partners

Thank you. Hey, good morning. Thank you. Can you I know we only have a few minutes here. Can you just update us on your AI efforts?

Craig Huber
Equity Research Analyst at Huber Research Partners

How you're feeling about that in terms of services enhancements, product enhancements versus cost savings? Are you seeing those AI cost savings in the quarter we just finished? Thank you.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

I think Ellen can speak to if you're asking on the efficiency side, and then obviously I'm happy to talk about how it's integrated or sort of add to what was in the prepared remarks about how it's being integrated on the capabilities and client facing side.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Yeah. I mean, as we're moving to more common systems, AI is a component of that. I think you will still see I think it's still early stages, right? We're baking it into as many places as we can. We've had training across a lot of the corporate groups to really stimulate intellectual curiosity on all the different use cases.

Ellen Johnson
Ellen Johnson
Executive VP & CFO at The Interpublic Group of Companies

We're using it in our shared services centers to automate more processes. But as we continue to standardize and move into right shoring, there will be more and more AI capabilities baked in. So I'd say we're seeing some, but it's still early innings and there is a lot more to come.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

And then on the client service capability product side, we've talked about this in the past and I know you've paid close attention to. In the Acxiom business and across media brands, a the technology whether it was machine learning or otherwise, is something that's really been core to what we've been doing for a number of years. The impact of GenAI, the rate of adoption across the group has been increasing quite dramatically in the last six to twelve months. I called out something that I actually just spent some time with some clients on the earned, owned social side and how it's really become core to how we're going to market in that whole part of the sector of the business. I think across the consumer ad agencies, whether at an FCB, at a Deutsch, in McCann, you're definitely seeing it being incorporated into a broad range of everything from the way in which we do strategy work and find audience opportunities so that it's really a business conversation with a client all the way through to the, you know, kind of smart production and delivery of content.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

And then, you know, the ability to then track that content understand how consumers are interacting with that content, which I think is interesting because it will increasingly open the opportunity for more accountability and more signal back. And therefore, on the creative sides of the business, I think, a revenue model that's more performance based. So I think we're pleased at the degree to which AI is being incorporated, to Ellen's point, on the processes, how we run the business, but also the delivery of service and product to clients.

Craig Huber
Equity Research Analyst at Huber Research Partners

Great. Thank you both.

Philippe Krakowsky
Philippe Krakowsky
Chief Executive Officer at The Interpublic Group of Companies

Thank you. I think I understood that to be the last question. As I said, we appreciate the attention. We look forward to updating you again in a couple months time and a lot can happen in those few months. So everybody here will be very focused on what we laid out which is just our clients and delivering for them. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect at this time.

Executives
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Key Takeaways

  • Organic revenue declined 3.6% in Q1 as expected due to trailing account losses, partially offset by strong growth at IPG Mediabrands, Deutsche, Golin, and in LatAm as well as tech, telecom, food & beverage, and financial services clients.
  • Adjusted EBITDA was $186.5 million with a 9.3% margin, reflecting disciplined cost management and the launch of a transformation program that includes $300–350 million of restructuring charges and equivalent annualized savings.
  • Reported diluted EPS was a loss of $0.23 versus adjusted EPS of $0.33, and the company resumed share repurchases after shareholder approval, buying back 3.4 million shares for $90 million.
  • Full-year guidance reaffirmed: organic net revenue down 1–2% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.6%, with IPG’s flexible cost model and ongoing transformation poised to navigate macro uncertainty.
  • The planned Omnicom merger has cleared major regulatory hurdles and secured over 99% shareholder support, targeting completion in H2 2025 to unlock complementary capabilities and additional synergies.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Interpublic Group of Companies Q1 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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