Editoria e Media
Ipsos: Return to organic growth in the second quarter in an environment that remains volatile
Return to organic growth in the second quarter
in an environment that remains volatile
Paris, 23 July 2025 – Ipsos, one of the world’s leading market research companies, achieved a revenue of €1,155.0 million in the first half of 2025.
Total growth stands at 1.5%, including -0.5% organic growth, 3.1% scope effect mainly related to the acquisition of infas (leader in market research in the German public sector), and -1.1% unfavourable currency effects, due notably to the depreciation of the dollar over the last three months. For the second quarter alone, organic growth stands at 0.7%, after -1.8% in the first quarter.
Ben Page, CEO of Ipsos , stated: “Our performance in the second quarter is marked by a return to organic growth and by encouraging signs of improvement in the United States. We are also continuing our acquisitions policy and our investments in technology and Artificial Intelligence. While we remain cautious in the current macroeconomic and political context, we confirm our objectives for 2025, namely organic growth higher than that of 2024 and an operating margin of around 13% at constant scope.”
PERFORMANCE BY REGION
The Group's performance improved across all geographies in the second quarter, with a return to organic growth in our two main regions: EMEA and the Americas.
In EMEA , total growth for the first half stood at 6.3%, driven by the integration of infas in Germany since the beginning of the year. Despite an unfavourable base effect (+7.6% in the first semester 2024), half-year organic growth reached 0.8%, including 1.8% in the second quarter alone. This performance reflects notably (i) good results in continental Europe and the Middle East (ii) a decline in activity in France, attributable to the political climate which significantly penalized our Public Affairs service line.
The Americas showed organic growth of 0.6% in the second quarter, including 0.5% in the United States, where the measures taken by the new management team are beginning to bear fruit. Although the political context remains uncertain and continues to penalize our Public Affairs activity, the other service lines as a whole are showing encouraging signs, with organic growth of 2% over the half-year, driven by a good performance in the consumer goods sector and an improvement in healthcare activity.
The performance of the Asia-Pacific region was impacted by the lack of recovery in China, still held back by a lack of macroeconomic visibility and by the deflationary context; by a climate of uncertainty in the region; and by a decrease in our Public Affairs activities, following election periods in many countries of the region in 2024.
PERFORMANCE BY AUDIENCE
Breakdown of Service Lines by audience segment:
1- Brand Health Tracking, Creative Excellence, Innovation, Ipsos UU, Ipsos MMA, Market Strategy & Understanding, Observer (excl. public sector), Ipsos Synthesio, Strategy3
2- Automotive & Mobility Development, Audience Measurement, Customer Experience, Channel Performance (Mystery Shopping and Shopper), Media Development, ERM, Capabilities
3- Public Affairs, Corporate Reputation
4- Pharma (quantitative and qualitative)
Our service lines dedicated to consumers and clients and employees showed organic growth of 0.8% in the first half, accelerating between the first and second quarter, despite an unfavourable base effect. Business in this sector is driven in particular by our activities related to market positioning, marketing spend optimization, advertising campaign measurement and mystery shopping.
Our activity related to citizens is down 11.4% on an organic basis since the beginning of the year. Although improving compared to the first quarter, it remains impacted by prolonged uncertainties and wait-and-see attitude resulting from the electoral cycle, particularly in the United States, France and certain Asian countries.
The doctors and patients audience is improving, with organic growth of about 5% over the half-year. Innovation in oncology, rare diseases, as well as GLP-1 studies should support the sector’s growth in the coming months. However, we remain cautious given the political and regulatory climate in the United States, which could impact vaccine development and the commercialization of new drugs.
Our DIY platform Ipsos.Digital continues its strong growth (26% in the first half), with an operating margin level about twice that of the Group. Additionally, the platform continues to expand with new solutions.
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
Summary income statement
*Adjusted net profit is calculated before (i) non-monetary items related to IFRS 2 (Share-based Payment), (ii) the amortisation of acquisition-related intangible assets (client relations), (iii) the impact of other non-current income and expenses, net of tax, (iv) the non-monetary impact of changes in puts and other financial income and expenses, and (v) deferred tax liabilities related to goodwill for which amortisation is deductible in some countries.
Income statement items
Gross margin stood at 68.4% compared to 68.5% in the same period last year. This slight decrease is explained by the integration of infas in Germany, whose gross margin rate is lower than the Group's average. The integration plan aimed at restoring profitability is ongoing. At constant scope, the gross margin rate increased by 30 basis points, notably due to the strong growth of Ipsos.Digital.
Regarding operating costs, the payroll increased by 3.1% due to the impact of acquisitions, but only by 0.7% at constant scope. We continue to adapt our cost structure to the evolution of the activity. Thus, our headcount has decreased by almost 2% at constant scope since the beginning of the year; full effects on profitability will materialize in the second half. At June 30, the ratio of payroll to gross margin stands at 69.5% and remains significantly lower than the pre-pandemic situation.
Overhead costs increased by €7.3 million, mainly due to (i) a scope effect of €5 million coming from acquisitions (ii) an increase in IT, technology, and panel acquisition expenses. The ratio of overhead costs to gross margin is 15.7% and remains significantly lower than in 2019 (18.3%).
The Other operating income and expenses item shows a negative balance of €10.4 million, which mainly consists of departure costs and is impacted by operational exchange losses related to the depreciation of the dollar and other currencies against the euro.
For the first half, the operating margin stands at 8.3%. As in 2023, we expect a significant improvement in profitability in the second half, driven by the acceleration of growth and by the full effect of the measures taken to adjust our costs.
The Other non-current income and expenses item includes nearly €5 million in acquisition costs and €3 million related to the write-down of the Russian net asset. Furthermore, we are currently analyzing the impacts of the law passed by the Russian parliament on July 15, 2025, which will limit, starting 2026, the share of market research companies’ capital held by foreign companies. The whole Russian net book value has already been written down in the Group's accounts.
The financial result is -€12.6 million. It mainly includes financing costs of 5.3 million euros as well as non-operating exchange losses related to the dollar’s depreciation.
The effective tax rate is 26.6% compared to 26.0% in the first half of 2024.
Net profit attributable to owners of the parent amounts to €53 million and a djusted net profit attributable to owners of the parent share to €72 million compared to €82 million the previous year.
Financial structure
Cash flow . Cash flow from operations amounts to €139 million, compared to €177 million in the first half of 2024. This decrease is linked to the decline in pre-tax net profit.
In the first half of 2025, the change in the working capital requirement is stable compared to 2024, thanks to the optimization of our invoicing and settlement processes, which has reduced payment times. This offsets the impact of customer collections, which are lower this year given the level of growth.
Investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets mainly consist of investments in IT and technology infrastructure and amounted to €42 million in the first half. They are up by nearly a third, in line with the implementation of our platforms and technologies roadmap.
In total, free cash flow from operations amounts to €40 million in the first half and would be €54 million at constant scope. It is down compared to 2024, which had benefited at the beginning of the year from the strong growth of end 2023, but remains higher than that of previous years (€24 million in 2023 and €53 million in 2022).
Regarding non-current investments , Ipsos invested €149 million in the first half, mainly for the acquisitions of The BVA Family and infas.
Finally, financing activities his semester mainly include (i) a rated bond issue of 400 million euros in January 2025 (ii) the repayment in June of the previous bond for 300 million euros.
Equity stands at €1,429 million at June 30, 2025, compared to €1,421 million at June 30, 2024.
Net financial debt amounts to €251 million, compared to €100 million at June 30, 2024, due to acquisitions. The leverage ratio (calculated excluding the IFRS 16 impact) is healthy at 0.6 times EBITDA.
Cash position. Cash at June 30, 2025, amounts to €250 million, compared to €283 million at June 30, 2024.
The Group has an excellent level of liquidity, with nearly €450 million in credit facilities with maturities of more than one year, after successfully renegotiating a 5-year syndicated facility line of €150 million. Ipsos henceforth has no significant debt maturities before 2030.
PERSPECTIVES
The second quarter is marked by encouraging signs as Ipsos returns to organic growth in a still volatile macroeconomic environment. In the United States, the measures taken are beginning to bear fruit.
We are continuing our acquisition strategy. The finalization of the acquisition of
The BVA Family provides us with new strengths in France, the United Kingdom and Italy, particularly in packaging testing, customer experience, mystery shopping, and studies for governments and public services.
In Germany, the acquisition of InMoment's Healthcare division strengthens our expertise in the pharmaceutical and MedTech sectors, a few months after the acquisition of infas in Public Affairs.
We are also pursuing our advancements in technology and Artificial Intelligence. Our work in synthetic data allows us to offer new solutions to our clients, while we continue to optimize and automate our internal platforms to simplify and accelerate the compilation and processing of large-scale data.
As expected, the business profile for 2025 will be opposite to that of 2024, with a greater than usual weight of the second half in terms of revenue, operating margin, and cash generation, as observed in 2023.
As a consequence, while we remain cautious in the face of the global context, we confirm our financial objectives for 2025: organic growth higher than that of 2024 and an operating margin of around 13% at constant scope, excluding the impact of acquisitions made in 2025.
Ipsos will present its new strategic plan, Horizons 2030, during an Investor Day to be held on November 19, 2025.
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Presentation of half-year results
The 2025 half-year results will be presented on Thursday, 24 July 2025 at 8:30 a.m. CEST via webcast.
If you would like to register, please contact IpsosCommunications@Ipsos.com.
A replay will also be made available on Ipsos.com
Appendices
The complete consolidated financial statements as at 30 June 2025 are available on Ipsos.com
ABOUT IPSOS
Ipsos is one of the largest market research companies in the world, present in 90 markets and employing nearly than 20,000 people.
Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. Our 75 solutions are based on primary data from our surveys, social media monitoring, and qualitative or observational techniques.
“Game Changers” – our tagline – summarises our ambition to help our 5,000 clients navigate with confidence our world of rapid change.
Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos has been listed on the Euronext Paris since 1 July 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120, Mid-60 indices and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD).
ISIN code FR0000073298, Reuters ISOS.PA, Bloomberg IPS:FP
www.ipsos.com
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Notes
Consolidated income statement, Interim financial statements at June 30, 2025
* Adjusted for non-cash items related to IFRS 2 (share-based compensation), amortization of intangible assets identified on acquisitions (customer relations), deferred tax liabilities related to goodwill for which amortization is deductible in some countries, the impact net of tax of other non-operating income and expenses and the non-cash impact of changes in puts in other financial income and expenses.
Statement of financial position, Interim financial statements at June 30, 2025
Consolidated statement of cash flows, Interim financial statements at June 30, 2025
Attachment
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