Advertising giant WPP profits jump 14%

British advertising giant WPP said Thursdy that net profits jumped 14 percent last year on rising revenues, acquisitions, and strong growth in the US and many emerging markets. Profits after taxation climbed to £936.5 million ($1.6 billion, 1.1 billion euros) in 2013, up from £822.7 million in 2012, WPP said in a results statement. Total revenues advanced 6.2 percent to £11.02 billion, added WPP, which owns the Grey Group, Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather advertising agencies. And the London-listed firm said organic revenue -- stripping out the impact of currency fluctuations, acquisitions and disposals -- rose 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter. That outstripped French rival Publicis, where sales gained 0.7 percent during the same period, hit hard by the slowing Chinese economy. WPP's performance was due to solid growth in the United States and many emerging markets, despite a slowdown in some nations like China. However, the firm also missed its full-year operating margin target, as the depreciation of many emerging market currencies against sterling weighed in the second half. WPP's operating margin improved to 15.1 percent in 2013, up 0.3 percentage point on 2012, but it had targeted an improvement of 0.5 percentage point. Shares sank 5.18 percent to 1,262 pence on London's FTSE 100 index, which was down 0.47 percent at 6,767.50 points. France's Publicis is meanwhile in the process of merging with US peer Omnicom, in a move that will see them leapfrog WPP as global market leader. Omnicom is currently the world number two advertising company and Publicis third. - Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this report -