The advertising group has reinstated its dividend and says that the worst may be behind itWPP swung into a record loss in the first half of the year after writing nearly £3 billion off the value of its roster of advertising agencies in the wake of the economic downturn. The world’s largest ad and marketing group said it had had to reassess the value of its “historical” acquisitions to reflect the impact of Covid-19. It took £2.7 billion of impairment charges in the first half, wiping away some £2.5 billion of goodwill. The writedowns pushed WPP into a pretax loss of £2.6 billion, compared with a profit of £409 million in the same period last year. Nevertheless, the FTSE 100 group has reinstated its dividend, having axed the final payout for last year.

Source: The Times August 27, 2020 08:03 UTC