M&C Saatchi Sees FY Trading In Line Co Views

10th Jun 2010 14:43

LONDON (Dow Jones)--M&C Saatchi PLC (SAA.LN), said Thursday that it had a good start in 2010 and the company's performance for the full year remains in line with its expectations. MAIN FACTS: -Trading and visibility continues to be challenging, although it believes it has seen some positive upturns in consultancy business and new business activity. -The three new offices - Switzerland, Brazil and Japan- have inevitably reduced profits, but the company believes in the long run the investments will prove to be well worthwhile. -Since the close of 2009 the company has opened new offices in Italy and in South Africa both of which it expects to do rather well. -The company also hopes to expanded presence in Greater China with a fourth office, in Guangzhou. -As announced in March, we have sold a 20% stake in the Australian agency to local management. The idea behind the move is that the more our people are masters and mistresses of their business, the better we all do. If successful, we intend to repeat this exercise elsewhere. -Certainly we aim to enshrine the entrepreneurial spirit in the future managers of the business. We pick our new graduates from those who most want to lead, to be 'masters of their own destiny' and then we train them to make the most of their talent. Shares at 1340 GMT traded at 92 pence. -By Razak Musah Baba, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9275; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 10, 2010 09:43 ET (13:43 GMT)