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The
region represented close to 20 percent of WPP's total revenue in
2015 and Germany, France, Italy and Spain are among the group's
top 10 markets.
"We are in danger of losing influence in the western continental
European markets," WPP Chief Executive Officer Martin Sorrell
told Reuters in an interview.
"That means that the incremental jobs are less likely to be in
the UK, ironically, and more likely to be in Germany, in France,
in Italy and in Spain," he added.
The 71-year-old CEO, who is British, confirmed the company's
full-year guidance, however.
Shares in WPP were down 5.8 percent at mid-session, slightly
underperforming weaker British shares.
Sorrell added that foreign exchange was not an issue for his
group, which reports in sterling, after the British currency
fell up to 10 percent following the vote.
"Our revenues and costs are matched by market, because we don’t
have cross-border currency exposure," he said, speaking on the
sidelines of the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of
Creativity, a conference on marketing and advertising.
Sterling plunged to its lowest in three decades on Friday as
Britain's vote to leave the EU sparked turmoil on global
financial markets.
The world's number one advertising company, whose top global
agencies include Ogilvy & Mather, Grey and JWT, has pledged to
grow in emerging countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China
and South Africa while maintaining a strong foothold in its home
region.
The WPP chief predicted that the world economy would slow down
as a consequence of the shock British referendum result.
"The world is going at between 3 or 3.5 percent (growth rate)...
My guess is that the next forecast from the World Bank or the
IMF is going to be even more conservative."
The International Monetary Fund forecast in April that the
global economy would expand by 3.2 percent in 2016, while the
World Bank cut its 2016 global growth forecast to 2.4 percent
from 2.9 percent in June.
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain, Editing by Dominique Vidalon,
Tim Hepher and Adrian Croft)
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