Parent company Aegis said its research agency achieved 7.3% organic growth in Q1, compared to the same period last year. Synovate performed “extremely well” in China, India, South Africa and Brazil, the firm said, but difficult market conditions continued to affect its business in the UK and southern Europe.

The integration of Russian research agency Comcon, in which Synovate took a majority stake last year, is proceeding “in line with our expectations”, it said.

Synovate’s growth rate was behind that of Aegis as a whole, which saw 9.1% organic growth in the quarter. The group’s reported growth rate, including the effects of currency movements, acquisitions and disposals, was 16.3%.

In the full year 2010 Synovate achieved organic growth of 5.9%, reaching £572.6m and accounting for about 40% of Aegis’s total revenue.

Aegis CEO Jerry Buhlmann (pictured) said the company had built on positive momentum gained in 2010 and that “Synovate started the second quarter with a healthy orders-on-hand position.”