WPP plans US expansion after ‘watching’ New York listing

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WPP is “looking” at changing its primary list to New York, according to chief executive Mark Read, who will pursue opportunities to take advantage of a “resurgence” in the United States as Donald Trump returns to the White House.

Read told the Financial Times that this was the year for the London-listed ad network to start its push into AI, revenue growth and – despite its concerns about the health of the stock market United Kingdom – its share price.

“We have to drive topline growth to drive the share price – I’m very focused on that,” Read said in an interview in his office on London’s Southbank, as he outlined plans for up to $100 million in additional AI investment to drive both. creativity and productivity in all its 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.

Read said WPP was looking at moving its primary listing to the US, adding: “It’s something we’re looking at.” While he has no plans to do so at the moment, he said that “other CEOs who have moved their rosters to the US have found it a positive experience.”

The market is watching Read’s next moves, with discussions between corporate advisers and industry rivals about mounting pressure on the CEO 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 .

Meanwhile, WPP’s two biggest US rivals – Omnicom and IPG – filed last month. merger plans to create a single advertising weight based in New York.

Read said that while major deals along the lines of Omnicom-IPG were “obviously something we would consider,” he had not pursued such a tie-up. “We better invest in what we have to go through a major consolidation,” he said.

He also saw the merger as an opportunity, suggesting that WPP’s restructuring period signaled disruption for its American rivals. “I’ve had the battle scars of integrating companies over the last six years,” said Read, pointing to the challenges of bringing together companies spanning multiple advertising and PR agencies.

“There will be three big 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 planning activities, he added, “it wasn’t 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 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 vibrant – you can feel the energy. And I’m sure those things are related.”

Read said the US, where it has about 38 percent of its business, would be the main growth area for WPP, including M&A plans focused on data and technology services to give it a bigger presence in the world’s largest advertising market.

“With the Trump presidency, there is a resurgence of business confidence in the United States,” he observed, noting the “sense of ambition and growth in the United States” that also translates into how its companies went public.

The British government needed to “get to the bottom” of how to provide the capital flow the FTSE 100 needed, he said, noting that the valuation discount for London-listed companies was now “the biggest it has been in the story”.

“It will lead to M&A and a reduction in the number of listed companies,” he added.

This made it a challenge, he said, for the UK as a whole. “We have to get closer: WPP as a company to the United States and the United Kingdom as a country to the United States.”

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

He also noted how Trump had recently brought about a cultural change in corporate America: “The most striking example of the changes in Meta in the last six weeks. They can see how the wind blows.”

The ads also returned to X, the social media site of Trump ally Elon Musk. “The change in content moderation (to) Meta — more closely aligned with X — probably helps that as well,” he said.

Looking ahead, he said he was hopeful that this year would deliver an improvement in revenue, with plans to spend between £50 million and £100 million more than in 2024 on an AI platform that was developed in the 100,000 workers of the group.

“We have a lot of great new business opportunities,” Read said. “We’re very confident where we are with our AI investments, and I think we’re going to see a better year in 2025 than in 2024.”