Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
WPP was “considering” shifting its primary listing to New York, according to chief executive Mark Read, who will explore opportunities to capitalize on the “resurgence” in the US when Donald Trump re-enters the White House.
Read told the Financial Times that this was the year the London-listed ad network began to deliver on its push for AI, revenue growth and – despite his concerns about the health of the UK stock market – its share price.
“We need to drive value growth to drive the share price – I’m very focused on that,” Read said in an interview at his London Southbank office, as he outlined plans for up to $100 million in additional investment in artificial intelligence to drive both creativity and productivity in all its agencies.
“As a leading team, we have a plan. We know what we have to do. And 2025 is the year of execution, especially execution in AI.”
Read said WPP was considering moving its primary listing to the US, adding: “It’s something we’re looking at.” While he has no current plans to do so, he noted that “other CEOs who have moved their listings to the US have found a positive experience.”
The market is closely watching Read’s next moves, with talk among corporate advisers and industry rivals of increasing pressure on the chief executive following the arrival of the former BT boss Filip Jansen like a stool 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 rivals in the US – Omnicom and IPG – were unveiled last month merger plans to create an advertising heavyweight based in New York.
Read said that while large deals along the lines of Omnicom-IPG are “obviously something we’re looking at,” he would not seek such a tie-up. “We would be better off investing in what we have than going through a major consolidation,” he said.
He also saw the merger as an opportunity, suggesting that WPP’s own period of restructuring was indicative of the disruptions ahead for its US rivals. “I’m scarred from integrating the business over the last six years,” said Read, pointing to the challenges of bringing together companies that span multiple advertising and PR agencies.
“There will be three big players in our industry. None of us are very different from the rest in size and scope,” he said. And while scope has typically been positive for media buying and planning activities, he added, “it’s not entirely clear to me that scope and creativity are two words that always go together.”
Read has faced criticism from some employees over a policy announced last week to bring people back to the office four days a week. But he said: “Ogilvy in New York is one of our most successful agencies. It’s packed — bustling and lively — you can feel the energy. And I’m sure those things are connected.”
Read said the US, where it has about 38 percent of its business, would be a major growth area for WPP, including merger and acquisition plans focused on data and technology services to give it a greater presence in the world’s biggest advertising market.
“With the Trump presidency, there has been a resurgence of business confidence in the US,” he noted, noting a “sense of ambition and growth in the US” that has also translated into how well their companies have fared on the stock market.
The UK government needed to “get to the bottom” of how to ensure the flow of capital the FTSE 100 required, he said, noting that the valuation discount for London-listed companies was now “the biggest in history”.
“This encourages mergers and acquisitions and the reduction of the number of listed companies,” he added.
This presented a challenge, he said, for the UK as a whole. “We need to get closer: WPP as a company to the US and the UK as a country to the US.”
WPP counts some of the biggest US technology companies as clients — including winning Amazon’s media business outside America last year — but has been hit by a slowdown in advertising spending in the sector. Even so, he said that “in the long run, these companies will change the world.”
He also noted how Trump has brought about a cultural change in corporate America in a short period of time: “The most striking example of the changes at Meta in the last six weeks. I can see the wind blowing.”
Advertisers also flocked to X, a social media site owned by Trump ally Elon Musk. “Change in content moderation [at] Meta — more closely aligned with X — probably helps with that, too,” he said.
Looking ahead, he said he hoped this year would deliver an improvement in revenue, with plans to spend between £50m and £100m more than in 2024 on an artificial intelligence platform being rolled out to the group’s 100,000 workers.
“We have a lot of great new business opportunities,” Read said. “We’re very confident about where we are with our AI investments and I think we’ll see a better year in 2025 than 2024.”
