WPP plans US expansion if it ‘looks’ at the New York listing

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As Donald Trump re-enters the White House, WPP is “looking at” moving its headquarters to New York, CEO Mark Reed said, as he looks at opportunities to take advantage of the “resurgence” in the US.

Read told the Financial Times that this was the year the London-listed ad network began to focus on AI, revenue growth and – despite concerns about the health of the UK stock market – its share price.

“We need to drive top-line growth to drive the share price – I’m very focused on that,” he said in an interview at his London Southbank office, detailing plans for up to $100 million in additional AI investment to drive both. Innovation and productivity in the agencies.

“As a leadership team, we have a plan. We know what we need to do. And 2025 is the year of execution, and especially execution in AI.”

“It’s something we’re keeping an eye on,” he said of WPP’s move to the US. Although there are no plans to do so at the moment, “other CEOs who have moved their lists to the US have had a positive experience,” he said.

The market is closely watching Reading’s next moves, amid talks among corporate advisers and industry rivals about increasing pressure on the chief executive after ex-BT boss Philip Jansen took over as chairman three weeks ago.

WPP shares have fallen by a tenth in the past month, and now Reading is about a third lower than when it held in 2018.

Meanwhile, WPP’s two biggest US rivals – Omnicom and IPG – last month announced plans to create a single New York-based advertising heavyweight.

While major deals along the lines of Omnicom-IPG are “something we’re definitely thinking about,” he read that he wouldn’t have made such a tie-up. “We’d rather invest in what we have than go through major consolidation,” he said.

He also saw the merger as an opportunity and suggested that WPP’s own restructuring period should be cut short for its American rivals. “I have the battle scars of consolidating businesses over the past six years,” said Read, noting the challenges of bringing together companies that include multiple advertising and public relations agencies.

“There are going to be three big players in our industry. None of us are very different from the others in terms of size and scale,” he said. He said.

Read faced criticism from some workers last week over a policy to send people back to the office four days a week. But he said: “Ogilvy in New York is one of our best performing agencies. It’s packed – busy and active – you can feel the energy. And I’m sure those things are related.

The United States will be a key area for WPP’s growth, with 38 percent of its business, including M&A plans focused on information and technology services, and its large presence in the world’s largest advertising market, according to Read.

“With Trump’s presidency, there is a revival of business confidence in America,” he noted, adding that “ambition and growth in America” ​​translated into how well his companies performed on the stock market.

The UK government said it needed to “get to the bottom” of how to provide the capital flow the FTSE 100 needed, noting that the price cut for London-listed companies was now “the biggest in history”.

“It’s reducing M&A and the number of listed companies,” he added.

He said that this has created a challenge for England as a whole. We need to get closer: WPP as a company to the US and England as a country to the US.

WPP counts some of the biggest US tech companies as clients – including winning Amazon’s media business outside the US last year – but the sector has been hit by a slowdown in ad spending. Still, “in the long run, these companies are going to change the world,” he said.

He also pointed out how Trump has brought about a culture change in corporate America in such a short period of time: “The most striking example of the changes that have taken place at Meta in the last six weeks.” You see which way the wind blows.

Advertisers were also turning to X, the social network owned by Elon Musk, a Trump ally. “The moderation of content (in) Meta Change — which is closely aligned with X — will probably help that as well,” he said.

Looking ahead, it is optimistic that it will deliver an improvement in earnings this year, with plans to spend between £50mn and £100mn more by 2024 on its AI platform, which is being rolled out among the group’s 100,000 employees.

“We’ve got great new business opportunities,” Read said.