Advertising giant Publicis grew revenues by 8% in the three months between April and June, the company said today.

Combined with first-quarter revenue growth of 4%, the French company reported organic growth of 6.1% in the first half of the year.

Publicis, which owns the Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett advertising agencies, said it had revenues in the first six months of the year of 1.93bn euros (£1.33bn).

The company, which is the fourth largest advertising company in the world, said it had not made any major acquisitions so far this year.

Last month it bought a controlling stake in the London-based PR firm Freud Communications in a deal reported to value the company at £46m.

The company said its new business had hit record levels, including the General Motors account in the US.

North American revenues, which make up around 43% of the total, were up 6.1%, ahead of the 3.8% growth recorded in Europe.

In both continents growth in the second quarter was stronger than in the first three months of the year.

The smaller geographical divisions - Asia-Pacific, Latin America and rest of world, all posted higher growth figures, the latter seeing a 16.8% rise, though accounting for less than 2% of the company's revenues.

Publicis also said it had trimmed its average net debt by 329m euros (£227m) to 1.07bn euros (£739m) over the period.

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