Feb 4 (Reuters) - Publicis, the world's

largest advertising group by market capitalization, announced on

Tuesday it expects organic growth of 4% to 5% in 2025, a slight

slowdown compared to the robust performance in 2024 that

exceeded expectations, propelled by its data-driven targeted

marketing.

The French group, which dethroned British rival WPP ( WPP )

as the world's largest ad group by revenue in December,

expressed confidence in outperforming the market again in 2025.

Publicis reported net revenues of 13.97 billion euros

($14.35 billion) for 2024, representing an organic growth of

5.8% versus its 5.5% guidance. The last quarter of the year

witnessed growth acceleration to 6.3%.

Publicis' strong showing comes at a time of significant

shifts in the advertising landscape. The industry, traditionally

a reflection of broader corporate health, is set to consolidate

from the "Big Four" to the "Big Three" following the planned

merger of Omnicom ( OMC ) and Interpublic, forming a

combined entity with over $25 billion in revenue.

"We will continue to differentiate ourselves with

acquisitions in data, technology and artificial intelligence

that will enable us to continue to outperform in terms of

growth", CEO Arthur Sadoun said in a call.

This year, an additional 100 million euros will be invested

in AI, specifically to develop the CoreAI entity, as part of a

total budget of 300 million euros announced a year ago.

"You have to be agnostic about the partners you work with.

You have to work with Gemini, you have to work with OpenAI, you

have to work with DeepSeek, you have to be able to build your

own models", Sadoun said.

Publicis, in its tech-driven transformation that has

outpaced competitors, revealed plans to allocate between 800-900

million euros for targeted acquisitions in 2025, focusing on

technology, digital media, and proprietary data.

The company highlighted that its strategic acquisitions,

particularly Sapient and Epsilon, have contributed 40% to its

growth since 2020.

"In short, we believe we are better prepared, we have the

assets. We have invested 12 billion euros (over 10 years) to

leverage artificial intelligence", Sadoun said in a call.

For 2025, the group projects its operating margin to remain

slightly above 18% and anticipates free cash flow between 1.9

and 2.0 billion euros. It proposed a dividend of 3.60 euros per

share, a 5.9% hike from the previous year.

($1 = 0.9734 euros)