LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Advertising giant WPP lifted net sales guidance on Friday, after a rise in half-year profits driven by strong client demand across all services.


The company forecast like-for-like net sales to increase 6%-7% for the financial year, up from a previous upgrade of 5.5%-6.5%.

Pre-tax profit rose 12% to £562m. Revenue was £6.8bn, up 10.2% and up 8.7% on a like-for-like basis. Net sales were up 12.5% to £5.5bn.

WPP also now expects headline operating profit margin up around 50 basis points, reflecting greater top-line momentum offset by inflationary cost pressures, the impact of Chinese lockdowns and investment in growth areas.

"We remain confident in our ability to deliver annual revenue less pass-through costs growth of 3-4% and headline operating profit margin of 15.5-16%, as a result of the actions we have taken to broaden and strengthen our services, to increase our exposure to attractive industry segments and to leverage our global scale," WPP said.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti at Sharecast.com

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