Havas continued its 2025 rebound with a 3.8% increase in organic growth in Q3, driven by gains in the US, APAC and Africa.
The French holding company posted revenue of €681m ($791m), up 1.1% from Q3 2024 (though important to note that they reported a 2.3% decline in Q3 2024, making it a favourable comparison).
Growth in North America was 7.4%, driven by Havas Health which saw double-digit growth in the period. Europe was up 1.9%, while Asia Pacific and Africa combined were up 8.2%. The one downside, Latin America was down 4.6%, with Havas citing less client spending in Brazil and Chile as the reason for the shortfall.
The solid Q3 performance follows decent growth results in Q1 (+2.1%) and Q2 (2.6%), and Havas has recorded a 2.8% overall organic growth increase for the first nine months of 2025 — a return to form after a tricky 2024 which saw 0.8% drop in revenue.
The firm attributed year-to-date gains ‘robust growth recorded with the Group’s top 30 clients’, fitting its strategy of ‘boosting service cross-fertilization with existing clients’.
Yannick Bolloré, CEO and Chairman of Havas, said that the company was ‘demonstrating impressive commercial momentum’. He cited ‘notable new business wins’ — including British Telecom Sentinel for SCI — and said they had spent the year ‘establishing a strong foundation for the future’.
Like the other holding companies — including Publicis, which reported its Q3 results yesterday — Havas is planning its future around AI. Last year it unveiled a new AI-led strategy and committed to investing €400 million in data, tech and AI by 2027. Its flagship Converged.AI system — a product suite containing AI-driven targeting, measurement and analytic features — was singled out by Bolloré during the Q3 announcement.
‘Today, AI is at the core of all our businesses’, he said: ‘Our Converged.AI strategy continues to drive measurable impact, helping clients operationalize AI across their marketing ecosystems with greater precision and efficiency.’
But other long-term strategies have been pursued too. The firm said it retains a ‘challenger positioning’ that relies on a ‘bolt-on’ acquisition strategy, including the purchase of Spanish performance marketing agency Tidart in Q3. During the investor presentation, Havas said it expects two to four further M&A deals in the fourth quarter to take the 2025 total to eight to 10.
It also confirmed this month that it will implement a 10-for-1 reverse share split in November, consolidating its nearly one billion shares into 99 million in a bid to simplify administration and boost stock market perception.
But the biggest development at Havas in Q3 was undoubtedly a new joint venture with Horizon Media. The new agency, Horizon Global, announced last month, will have $20 billion in combined billings and look to profit from any vacuum left by the upcoming Omnicom-IPG merger.
‘The main objective of Horizon Global is to take advantage of US clients which would like to extend their scope,’ a bullish Bolloré said. ‘It’s something that can only generate new revenues and new profits for Havas, knowing that we keep the ambition of Havas in the US and that we will compete with Horizon for certain clients. It’s very simple and should be a very efficient and win-win system.’
Following the sound Q3 results, Havas revised its 2025 guidance upwards from its original +2% prediction, now projecting net revenue between 2.5% and 3%.
Main image of Yannick Bolloré, CEO & Chairman of Havas, speaking at press briefing in Cannes. ©Stephane Sby Balmy
