Dentsu eyes recovery in India with new leadership in place

With new leadership in place, Dentsu is expecting a revival in the India business even after reporting an organic decline in revenue in the country, said Nick Priday, Chief Financial Officer, Dentsu Group, during its Q2 FY23 earnings call.

Dentsu Group Inc. reported a decline in organic revenue of -4.7% (YoY), with net revenue also down -0.1% yoy in Q2 FY2023 results.

The network’s underlying operating profit declined 37.6% YoY to US $154.7 million.

The company’s APAC (excluding Japan) region saw an organic revenue decline of -7.0%.

Looking ahead, the Group has forecast FY2023 organic growth of 0% to -2%, with operating margins of 17%.

Dentsu also appointed Harsha Razdan as CEO of the Dentsu South Asia region earlier in March this year. During the same period, Dentsu promoted Anita Kotwani to the role of CEO of media for South Asia. Before this role, she was the CEO of Carat. 

Dentsu stated in its Q2 FY23 earnings statement, “India experienced the impact of client losses from the Media business in Q2, however a new leadership team under Harsha Razdan as CEO, India and Anita Kotwani in Media has led to a radical shift towards more effective collaboration and a focus on client centricity. Recent client wins demonstrate a return to competitiveness.”

Dentsu in India lost both its major accounts Maruti Suzuki and Reckitt Benckiser to WPP’s GroupM and Wavemaker, respectively.

Even after witnessing a slew of exits from the company in the last two years, the company now aims to resurrect itself by making several new appointments.

In July 2023, Carat India, the media agency from the House of Dentsu, announced the appointment of Sanchayeeta Verma as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Dentsu X recently appointed Jose Leon as its CEO. In June 2023, Narayan Devanathan re-joined Dentsu India, albeit in a consulting role, as Group Chief Strategic Advisor.

In January 2023, the group onboarded OLX’s Sapna Arora in the Chief Client Officer’s role.

The network’s creative wing in India hired Surjo Dutt as CCO West and South. The agency already has Joy Mohanty as its CCO. Dentsu Creative has also made several hirings at EVP and ECD levels.

Talking about the second half of the current financial year, Hiroshi Igarashi, President and CEO, Dentsu Group, said, “There still are some signs of bearishness but with recovery in India and with the new CEO for China in place, we will make efforts to achieve recovery.”

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