Flat Q3 for Ipsos as it Soaks Up Major Changes

Ipsos third quarter reported revenue has fallen 1.4% to EUR 427.9m from EUR 434m in the prior year period, with organic growth around zero. The firm says revenue was hit by two non-recurring events: the roll out of its internal Total Understanding project and the GfK asset acquisition.

For the first nine months of 2018, revenue was EUR 1.21bn, compared with EUR 1.26bn in 2017, a 4.3% decline in reporting terms, due to currency effects of -5.2%. Cumulative organic growth was 1%, which Ipsos says was slightly less than its estimated 2% to 3% growth.




Consolidated Revenues by Geographical Area



In Asia-Pacific, Ipsos grew 6.5% in nine months, and by 8.9% in the third quarter, driven by 'excellent performances' in China and India.

In the EMEA region, revenue grew slightly over the January-September period. Organic growth was +0.5% despite a decline of 1.2% in the third quarter, which the firm said was due mainly to 'difficulties' in some Arab countries as well as two or three markets in Western Europe. However, business activity remained strong in West Africa, Eastern Europe and Turkey. The Americas were the least satisfactory region, with a decline on a comparable basis of 1% over nine months and 2.9% in the third quarter.


Consolidated Revenues by Audience Segment

Ipsos' new structure is based on Service Lines corresponding to whether people being studied are defined primarily as citizens, customers or consumers. A fourth segment includes work conducted with doctors, health professionals and patients, excluding research designed to measure the perceived effectiveness of public or private policies (Health Foundations), which are classified in the 'citizen' segment.



Organic growth for the first nine months of 2018 was heavily concentrated in the 'citizens' segment, which Ipsos says reflects and confirms the information released in previous quarters on the success of the 'Opinion & Social Research' business line.


2018 Outlook

In a statement, the company said business activity in the third quarter had been slacker than expected. Two non-recurring events combined to slow down Ipsos' business activity. The first was the roll out of the firm's internal Total Understanding project on 1st July, since when thousands of employees have had to learn new functions in a bid to make Ipsos more competitive and get closer to clients and their needs. Secondly, the buy-out operation to acquire certain GfK assets also consumed time and effort in the quarter.

In a statement, the company said: 'Despite the ever perceptible effects of the implementation of the Total Understanding project and the efforts made for the successful induction of teams and activities acquired from GfK, Ipsos is looking forward to a fourth quarter that will show an improvement over the third, even though overturning results recorded over nine months in just three months may seem complicated'.

Web site: www.ipsos.com .