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WPP is “looking” at moving its main listing to New York, according to chief executive Mark Read, which will seek opportunities to take advantage of a “resurgence” in the US as Donald Trump returns. – also at the White House.
Read told the Financial Times that this is the year for the London-listed advertising network to start delivering on its AI push, revenue growth and – despite his concerns over the health of the UK stock market – the its share price.
“We need to drive topline growth to drive the share price – I’m very focused on that,” Read said in an interview at his Southbank office in London, as he outlined plans for up to $100 million of further investment in AI to drive both. creativity and productivity of its agencies.
“As a leadership team, we have a plan. We know what we have to do. And 2025 is the year about killing, and especially AI killing. “
Read said WPP was looking at moving its main list to the US, adding: “It’s something we’re keeping an eye on.” While it has no plans to do so at the moment, he pointed out that “other CEOs who have moved their listings to the US have found a positive experience”.
The market is closely watching Read’s next moves, with talks from corporate advisers and industry rivals about pressure mounting on the chief executive following the arrival of the former BT boss. Phillip Jansen as chair three weeks ago.
WPP shares have fallen by a tenth in the past month, and are now about a third lower than when Read took over in 2018. The share price of its French rival Publicis has almost doubled over the same period.
While the two biggest rivals of WPP in the US – Omnicom and IPG – last month opened merger plans to create a single, New York-based advertising heavyweight.
Read said that although major deals along the lines of Omnicom-IPG were “obviously something we are considering”, he would not have pursued such a tie-up. “We’re better off investing in what we have than going through a massive consolidation,” he said.
He also sees the merger as an opportunity, suggesting that WPP’s own period of restructuring points to disruption ahead for its US rivals. “I have the battle scars of merging businesses over the last six years,” says Read, pointing to the challenges of merging companies that encompass multiple advertising and PR agencies.
“There are three major players in our industry. None of us is very different in size and scale from the others,” he said. And while scale tends to be positive for media buying and event planning, he added, it is “not entirely clear to me that scale and creativity are two words that always go together”.
Read has faced criticism from some staff over a policy announced last week to put people back in the office. four days a week. But he said: “Ogilvy in New York is one of our best agencies. It’s full — busy and energetic — you can feel the energy. And I’m sure those things are linked.”
Read said the US, where it has about 38 percent of its business, is a key area for growth for WPP, including M&A plans focused on data services and technology to provide it. a greater presence in the world’s largest advertising market.
“With the Trump presidency, there is a resurgence of business confidence in the US,” he observed, noting the “sense of ambition and growth in the US” which also translates into how well their companies are doing in the stock market. .
The UK government needs to “get to the bottom” of how to provide the flow of capital needed by the FTSE 100, he said, noting how the valuation discount for London-listed companies is now “the biggest made in history”.
“This is driving M&A and a decline in the number of listed companies,” he added.
This poses a challenge, he says, for the UK as a whole. “We need to get closer: WPP as a US company and the UK as a US country.”
WPP counts some of the biggest US tech companies as clients – including winning Amazon’s media business outside America last year – but has been hit by a slowdown in advertising spending in the sector. However, he said that “in the long run, companies will change the world”.
He also noted how Trump in a short period of time brought about a change in corporate culture in America: “The most striking example of Meta changes in the last six weeks. They can see the way to the wind blows.”
Advertisers are also returning to X, the social media site owned by Trump ally Elon Musk. “The content moderation change (in) Meta – which is more closely aligned with X – will probably help with that as well,” he said.
Looking ahead, he said he expects this year to deliver a boost in revenues, with plans to spend between £50 million and £100 million more than in 2024 on an AI-powered platform. of the group’s 100,000 workers.
“We have a lot of new business opportunities,” Read said. “We’re very confident about where we are with our AI investments, and I think we’ll see a better year in 2025 than in 2024.”