Ipsos revenues begin Covid-19 recovery in Q3

Ipsos’ latest financial results for Q3 showed that while revenues were at €468.6m and therefore below those seen in Q3 2019, they were improved on the 25.8% fall in revenue experienced in the second quarter of 2020.

The firm calculated that the first half of 2020 had a cumulative growth that was 13.5% lower than the same period the previous year, while this was 9.9% for all three quarters of 2020 combined.

Europe, Middle East and Africa saw the quickest recovery, but was still down 2.5% on the same period in 2019. This was significantly better than the 9.5% reduction in revenue over the first half of 2020.

However, the Americas and Asia-Pacific both struggled to recover from the impact of Covid-19 earlier this year. Revenue in the Americas was 14.5% lower than Q3 2019 and was only slightly better than the 15.5% reduction in revenue in the first half of this year.

Asia-Pacific revenues were 17.9% down this quarter compared with 2019, and were only a slight improvement on the first half of 2020, when revenue dipped 19%.

Services dedicated to studying consumer behaviours were still down from their usual level, Ipsos said, due to the impact of the pandemic on industries such as transport, hospitality and catering that were the biggest users of those services.

However, Ipsos said that its health and public opinion had performed well during 2020.

Ipsos said the Covid-19 lockdown of early 2020 was the main reason for its loss of revenue, and claimed the company was in a great position to recover over the rest of the year if further lockdowns were avoided.

“In reality, our only certainty is that our business will be affected if many countries reintroduce widespread lockdowns for several weeks or even months,” the financial statements said.

“That said, the various scenarios, from the most restrictive to the most optimistic, do not call into question the financial and operational strength of our company.”