Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Publicis Groupe Full Year 2023 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions by pressing star and one at any time. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Arthur Sadoun, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Alicia. Bonjour, and welcome to Publicis Groupe 2023 full year results call. I am Arthur Sadoun, and I'm here in Paris with Michel-Alain Proch, our CFO, and Anne-Gabrielle Heilbronner, our Secretary General. In the room today, you also have Jean-Michel Bonamy, who will be available to answer your question offline after this session. I will start this call by sharing the main highlights of 2023, which is another record year for the group. Michel-Alain will then take you through the details of our numbers. After that, I will conclude with the reason why we are confident in delivering another strong year in 2024. Finally, as always, we will take all of your questions together. But before we start, please take the time to read the disclaimer, which is an important legal matter. Okay, let's get into the presentation.
In reality, there is just one single highlight to take out of last year. In a very challenging microeconomic context for our clients, and after six years of transformation, Publicis extracted itself from the pack in 2023. With 6.3% organic growth, not only are we outperforming our holding company peers by 500 basis points in net revenue, but we are also growing at double the rate of the main IT consulting firms. And what is true for organic growth is also true for our financial KPIs, be it margin or free cash flow. At the moment where our clients need partners that truly help them transform in a challenging and ever-changing context, our unique model has made the difference and allowed us to significantly gain market share. Let me give you another view of our numbers, starting with organic growth.
We achieve +6.3% in 2023, after two years at double digits, with a stronger than expected finish to the year at +5.7% in Q4. We already shared some of those numbers when we released our AI plan two weeks ago, but let me recap a few important points. Thanks to our unique go-to-market in media and our balanced revenue mix, we were able to deliver a strong and consistent performance above expectations. Media, one third of our revenue, grew double digits in 2023 for the third year in a row. This was led by both market share gains and organic growth at existing clients, and it actually accelerated in Q4 with a faster ramp-up of new business. Data and tech, another third, posted a very solid year overall.
Epsilon was up +10%, and Publicis Sapient up +3% organically, on top of +12% and +19% respectively in 2022. In Q4, we saw the same trends as in Q3. On the one hand, a very high demand for first-party data and marketing transformation, resulting in double-digit growth at Epsilon. On the other hand, as expected, delays in business transformation projects, like all other IT consulting peers, leading to a slight decline in organic growth at Publicis Sapient. Finally, creative had a very resilient full year growth at low single digits on top of mid-single digit in 2022, supported by a solid performance in production. This was also the case in Q4, with fewer cuts than expected in classic advertising in a quarter of adjustment. Moving on to our organic growth by region.
The U.S. had a remarkable performance, with +5% organic growth for the full year, following +10% in both 2021 and 2022. With Q4 accelerating to +6.1% organic growth, the U.S. came ahead of expectations this quarter, fueled by media and data. Europe was at +10% organic growth for the full year, following double-digit growth in 2022. As anticipated, in Q4, the region posted mid-single digit growth against tough comparable in 2022. The U.K. was particularly resilient, with a modest decline in Q4 after posting 38% growth last year. Asia PAC delivered +3% growth for the full year, despite macroeconomic conditions. The region accelerated in Q4 to +4%, notably thanks to China, that returned to growth as we anticipated.
Let's now turn to our financial KPIs. Not only did we outperform on organic growth, but we also led the market on financial ratios again in 2023, with an operating margin at 18% and an adjusted free cash flow at EUR 1.7 billion. The efficiency generated by our platform organization allowed us to deliver this performance while investing in our people with a record bonus pool of EUR 540 million, including share-based incentives. Thanks to this efficiency, we have also been able to set up our investment in technology, notably with the first tranche of our AI investment plan for EUR 25 million. This strong operational performance, combined with an improved return on cash, contributed to an adjusted free cash flow of EUR 1.7 billion. This came in line with our guidance before the Rosetta settlement that Michel-Alain will explain later.
After paying EUR 735 million of dividend, an increase of 21% versus the prior year, our average net debt came in at EUR 432 million, also in line with expectation. To sum up, as a consequence of our performance, the group actually achieved new records in 2023. With a reported revenue close to EUR 15 billion in 2023, up 35% versus 2019, the group has firmly established itself as the second largest player in the industry for the second year in a row. Operating margin reached EUR 2,363 million, after a 39% increase compared to 2019. Finally, our headline EPS, which stands at EUR 6.96, was also up 38% compared to 2019.
This allows us to propose a dividend of EUR 3.40 per share, which is an increase of 17% versus last year and a new high for the Group. Now, I will leave the floor to Michel-Alain, who will provide further details on our full year numbers. I will then come back to share our guidance and capital allocation for 2024.
Thank you, Arthur. Good morning to all of you. I'm glad to share with you those very strong results for my last earnings call with the group. I'll begin with the evolution of the net revenue for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. In 2023, the group posted a net revenue of EUR 13.1 billion, up 4.2% on a reported basis. Full year organic growth came in at 6.3% on top of two consecutive years at double digits. It is ahead of our guidance, last upgraded in October, reflecting a stronger finish to the year than anticipated, with Q4 at 5.7% organic. Looking at the fourth quarter, specifically, net revenue was EUR 3.54 billion, up 2.3% on a reported basis.
This includes EUR 189 million of organic contribution, a net negative impact of Forex for EUR 139 million, largely driven by the USD to euro rates, and finally, a contribution of acquisition net of disposal of EUR 28 million. This includes the revenue of the acquisition closed in 2022, such as Yieldify, Retargetly, as well as our most recent acquisition of Practia and Corra for about EUR 31 million. It was partly offset by some disposal, representing EUR 3 million. Let's move on to the next slide, which provides the dynamics of our Q4 organic and reported growth by region. North America posted a very solid 6% organic growth after 10% last year. As I mentioned, the impact of the Forex was obviously negative, bringing the region reported growth at 1.2%.
Europe recorded mid-single digit growth this quarter at 4.5% organically. This came on top of a very strong comparable of 13.2% in the prior year. Asia Pac posted a 4% organic growth, with China returning to positive territory. Middle East and Africa and Latin America continued to perform well, with 9.7% and 13.9% organic growth, respectively. So let's begin with more detail on North America. The region posted 6% this quarter, with the U.S. at 6.1% and Canada at 3.9%. In the U.S., the group's largest country, all activities continue to perform well. Media accelerated to double-digit growth on top of double-digit last year, fueled by strong underlying trends and new business won in the last 18 months, notably in the healthcare, food and beverage, and retail sectors.
Creative activities were resilient, with a slight decline in the quarter, despite the anticipated cuts in classic advertising. Production was very solid, particularly in food and beverage and automotive. Publicis Sapient was broadly stable organically on a high comparable basis of +15% last year. This was a solid performance in the context of delays in digital business transformation projects experienced by all comparable IT consulting firms. Epsilon reported another quarter of double-digit organic growth, fueled by digital media and data, in particular. Let's turn to the performance in Europe on the next slide. As I mentioned earlier, Europe recorded +4.3% organic growth this quarter. In the UK, organic growth was slightly negative, at -4.2%, as anticipated, after a standout performance of 38% in Q4 last year. Creative achieved a strong performance, particularly on the healthcare and retail sector.
Media was broadly stable after high double-digit growth last year. Finally, Publicis Sapient was negative after a record quarter last year, as it annualized the ramp-up of major contracts in financial services and retail, as we mentioned in prior calls. France, which represents 6% of our net revenue, posted a 6.3% growth, excluding outdoor media activities and the drugstore. This continues a very solid trend observed in the last quarters. The country saw creative accelerate to mid-single-digit, notably in the non-food consumer product sector, and media broadly stable, and finally, double-digit growth at Publicis Sapient. Germany, which represents 3% of our net revenue, posted 5.3% organic growth, with mid-single-digit media and sequential acceleration at Publicis Sapient, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Creative posted low single-digit growth over the quarter.
Lastly, our operation in Central Eastern Europe accelerated to 20.3%, largely led by media, mostly thanks to global clients. The group posted double-digit growth in Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, and Turkey. On the next slide, I will detail our performance in the rest of the world. In Asia PAC, which represent 9% of group net revenue in Q4, we posted +4% organic growth. Importantly, China returned to positive territory as anticipated, with 1.4% in Q4, after -2.5% in Q3, as media growth more than compensated cuts observed in classic advertising in what is a still uncertain macroeconomic context. Australia and New Zealand were slightly negative this quarter, reflecting a decline in media in the non-food consumer goods sector.
On the contrary, Southeast Asia posted a double-digit organic growth this quarter, with a robust quarter in India and a strong performance in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. In Middle East and Africa, we posted 9.7% organic growth. This included solid growth in media and creative activities, while Publicis Sapient continued to record double-digit performance. Latin America accelerated to 13.9% organic growth this quarter, equally led by media and creative. Of note, Mexico grew high single digit, Colombia double digit, and Brazil low single digit. For your reference, you'll find on the next slide the full year performance by region. All our regions grew on an organic basis this year again.
North America was up 4.9% organically, Europe 10.3%, APAC 2.9%, Middle East and Africa 12.4%, and finally, Latin America 8.9%. On the next slide, you'll find the group performance by client industry for the full year. This is based on an analysis of our main clients, representing 91% of our net revenue, and it excludes outdoor media activity and the drugstore. As you can see, our performance by client industry has been remarkably consistent quarter after quarter. In the full year, like on the first nine months of the year, we saw all of our client industry record positive growth, with the exception of TMT, that was only marginally down, and financial services stable on the period. Let me give you more color on the performance of other growing sectors.
Food and beverage and healthcare both recorded double-digit growth for the second year in a row. The retail sector posted 7% on top of a massive 24% growth in 2022, thanks to new business across different activities. Automotive continued to grow at mid-single digit in Q4 and in the full year. Moving now to our consolidated income statement. The group's revenue was close to EUR 15 billion, up 4.3% versus last year. EBITDA was EUR 2.845 billion, up 1.6% versus last year. Operating margin was at EUR 2.363 billion, a margin rate of 18%, in line with the record level of last year. I will provide more details in the next slides.
Headline group net income was EUR 1,767 million in 2023, an increase of 9.7% versus last year. Headline net financial expenses strongly improved to EUR 20 million, reflecting a higher remuneration and cash position, while income taxes increased to EUR 573 million. Amortization of intangible were EUR 199 million net of tax, while real estate restructuring charges reached EUR 150 million, with the continuation of the group real estate footprint optimization. Non-current items, net of tax, were a negative EUR 152 million in 2023. As mentioned previously, the group reached a multi-state settlement agreement concerning the opioid-related work at Rosetta, a long-shuttered advertising agency.
Bringing a close to almost three years of discussion, this exceptional charge had a net impact of $165 million, or EUR 152 million, in 2023 P&L. For memory, 2022 non-current items included the disposal loss for the exit of our Russian operation for EUR 87 million. Taking all this into account, the group net income was at EUR 1,312 million in the full year, up 7.4% versus 2022. Let's now turn to the following slide, which present our simplified P&L down to the operating margin. As I already mentioned, our operating margin rate was stable compared to last year, at a record high 18%, with EUR 2,363 million. I will detail the different components in the next page.
Let's begin with the effects and perimeter effects, which were a negative 20 basis points for the full year, so the comparable 2022 margin is 17.8%. Personnel costs were down 60 basis points in percentage of net revenue. This was primarily achieved thanks to a dynamic management of group resources. In particular, we managed to contain organic net hirings at circa 3,700, which is about half the pace of organic growth of the group in 2023. We also added 1,800 new hires, largely through our Practia and Corra acquisition, while strongly decreasing our freelancer costs as per the plan I shared with you last February. This is reflected in the bridge by the 110 basis points reduction in freelancer cost.
This cost discipline allowed us to absorb wage inflation, as well as variable remuneration that remain at record highs. Indeed, variable remuneration, including bonus and share-based incentive, stood at EUR 540 million, only marginally down in euro compared to the level of 2022. That included an exceptional one-week bonus for about EUR 50 million. When it comes to restructuring costs, the increase of 20 basis points reflects the localized adjustment that we've been making on the group organization to adapt it to the current macro environment. Please note that 2023 restructuring costs, although up compared to 2022, represent less than 1% of net revenue. Now, let's turn to the non-personnel cost of the group.
First, we have posted an increase of 80 basis points of other operating expenses, as anticipated, reflecting the increase in travel and client-facing meetings, but also an increase in our IT spend and R&D projects. This is notably—this notably includes a large portion of the first tranche of our AI investment plan for EUR 25 million. Second, depreciation improved by 60 basis points, driven by the continued benefit from our actions to reduce our real estate footprint over the last few years, as well as an increasing use of SaaS software that are directly expensed, as I've just described. As a result of all this, our operating margin rate amounted to 18% in 2023, up 20 basis points compared to its comparable 2022 level, excluding effects and perimeter, and stable versus 2022 reported.
Let's move to our headline net financial expenses on the next slide, which improved by EUR 106 million. Beginning with the interest on net financial debt, which is a positive EUR 78 million, improving by EUR 95 million compared to 2022. This was largely due to a higher remuneration on cash balances at variable rates, while our gross debt is at fixed rates. This improvement was actually stronger than what we anticipated a year ago, reflecting the persistence of high central bank rates across the year. Interest on lease liabilities improved by EUR 8 million to reach EUR 79 million, reflecting the reduction of our real estate footprint. The other lines being non-significant, this results in EUR 20 million euro headline net financial expenses versus EUR 126 million last year. Now, income tax. Reported income taxes stood at EUR 450 million.
This slight decrease mostly reflects the impact of a lower effective tax rate compared to 2022, combined with the tax impact of the Rosetta settlement that more than offsets the impact of the rise in profit before tax. To calculate the headline income taxes of EUR 573 million, we are adding the non-cash elements of our P&L, i.e., the tax effect on amortization of intangibles, on impairment and real estate consolidation, as well as the tax impact from the Rosetta settlement. Effective tax rate was 24.1%, down by 70 basis points compared to 2022, largely reflecting the one-time reversal of tax provisions following the conclusion of certain tax audits. Next slide, the headline earnings per share, fully diluted, was up 10% year-on-year to reach EUR 6.96. This is an increase of 39% versus 2019.
This strong growth reflects not only the improvement in our operating margin, but also the reduction of net financial charges and our effective tax rates that I just described. Finally, it's worth mentioning that the average number of shares on a diluted basis is stable versus December 2022, exactly as we committed. This materialized our decisions to prevent shareholders from dilution by first suppressing the scrip dividend, as announced in February 2021, and since that, buying shares on the market to complement the managers' long-term incentive plans. Moving to the next slide, free cash flow. Let me go through this chart from the left to the right. Our reported free cash flow before change in working capital reached EUR 1,547 million.
This includes the net cash out of EUR 148 million from the Rosetta settlement, corresponding to the 152 million P&L charge that I've just described. Adjusted for this exceptional cash out, 2023 free cash flow came in at EUR 1.7 billion, fully in line with our guidance. It also includes EUR 107 million TCJA transitional tax payment related to 2022 and paid in January 2023, that we already mentioned a year ago. When excluding those two items that are exceptional by nature, our free cash flow came in at EUR 1.8 billion, which is an underlying increase of EUR 102 million versus 2022. Next slide, use of cash. In 2023, change in working capital was a small EUR 8 million euro outflow.
This actually came in ahead of expectation, thanks to a better-than-expected performance at year-end, combined with a strict control of OpEx. Acquisitions, including earn-out and net of disposal, amounted to EUR 174 million. This amount is broadly similar to H1 and included the three acquisitions made for Publicis Sapient that I described in July, namely Practia, PS AI Labs, and Corra, as well as Yieldify for Epsilon. Let me add some color on this. As you know, we have not fully used our M&A envelope in 2023. The reason is that while we identified several bolt-on targets, a number of them did not meet our expectations of value creation for the group. But as Arthur will describe in the 2024 capital allocation priorities, this does not mean that we won't pursue other bolt-on targets this year.
On share buyback, we have EUR 189 million net outflow, following the completion of the repurchase of shares to cover LTI plans. Other non-cash items represented EUR -165 million, largely coming from the change in earn-outs and buyouts, fair value of cross-currency swaps, and the currency translation adjustment on the balance sheet due to the USD to euro Forex. As planned, dividend was paid in July, resulting in a net cash out of EUR 735 million. Overall, as a result of those variations, we further reduce the group net debt by EUR 275 million at the end of the year, compared to December 2022. Moving to the following slide for the net financial debt.
With the improvement of EUR 275 million that I've just described, we closed 2023 with a net cash position of over EUR 900 million. The average net debt on the last twelve months is EUR 432 million, an improvement of about EUR 250 million compared to last year, in line with our guidance of circa EUR 400 million. Including leases, this represent a leverage of 1.0x EBITDA, an improvement versus the 1.2x in 2022. Before leaving the floor to Arthur, let me finish with a few words on our 2023 dividend. Together with the board, we are pleased to propose a dividend per share of EUR 3.40 at our next AGM in May.
This would represent a payout of 49% at the top end of the group financial policy, and is an increase of 17% versus 2022, or 42% over the last two years. Like last year, this dividend will be fully paid in cash. This concludes my financial presentation, and now I give you back the floor, Arthur.
... Thank you, Michel-Alain. As you have seen, in 2023, we have extracted ourselves from the pack. I would like now to focus on the question that many of you are rightly asking: Is that sustainable? Meaning, do we have the ability to continue to outperform our industry in the years to come? The answer is a clear yes. We have consistently been ahead for the last four years, and we are clearly committed to sustain this momentum in 2024 and deliver 4%-5% organic growth. This actually means we should grow twice as fast as the industry average in net revenue. Let me now break that down with concrete facts. First, thanks to our revenue mix, with one-third in data and technology, and our differentiated go-to-market in media, we have been outperforming our industry on organic growth for the last four years.
Since 2019, we have grown +21% organically, about 800 basis points ahead of the industry average over the same period. This gap has only been increasing in 2023. The US, where our model is the most advanced, has grown +24% organically, while globally, Publicis Sapient deliver +29% and Epsilon +33%. Overall, the group has been growing twice as fast as peers over the period, with a CAGR of +4.7% since 2019. When it comes to new business, thanks to our go-to-market, we topped industry leagues year after year, including again in 2023, far ahead of competition, demonstrating and gaining market shares. We clearly built a track record of growth, but also on financial KPIs, consistently delivering the highest financial ratio over the years.
This was again the case in 2023, with our margin 250 basis points above the industry average. At Publicis, our strong financials are supporting our growth, not the other way around. Thanks to our platform organization, we are able to generate efficiencies that allow us to invest record level in our people today, far above competition and accelerate in technology, particularly on AI. As you know, we invested EUR 8 billion in data and technology, driven by AI, with Sapient and Epsilon, plus another EUR 1 billion over the last 3 years in bolt-on acquisition, such as CitrusAd or Profitero.
In 2024, on top of selective M&A, we will invest out of our P&L an additional EUR 100 million in AI as part of a 3-year plan to train and upskill our people and shift the group organization to an intelligent system, as we detailed in January. This OpEx investment will be fully balanced out by internal efficiency gains, with a neutral impact on margin this year. Second, we are confident that we have what it takes to continue our momentum in 2024 and sustain our 4-year CAGRs, despite very strong comparable and still a challenging macroeconomic environment. We anticipate outperforming the industry for the fifth year in a row, delivering 4%-5% organic growth, with an operating margin at 18% and a free cash flow between EUR 1.8 billion and EUR 1.9 billion.
At the lower hand, we have a very solid 4% that we intend to achieve, despite ongoing macroeconomic challenges, which affect classic marketing spend and delay business transformation projects. What makes us very confident on the 4% is the strength of our marketing transformation offering, notably with First-Party Data at the core of our media operation. Epsilon and Publicis Media together represent circa 50% of our revenue and are connected in a unique way to help our clients succeed. This will be strongly accretive to our growth again this year. Organic growth for the year could reach 5%, assuming an improvement in the global macroeconomic conditions in the second half of the year.
Concretely, this would imply less cuts in classic advertising and a better performance at Publicis Sapient, should clients regain confidence and resume their capital spend on business transformation in the course of the year. When it comes to the start of the year, we anticipate to significantly outperform the industry with a Q1 organic growth within our full year guidance, despite the high +7.1% comparable base last year in still a challenging macro environment. Finally, let me address our capital allocation for the year. Building on our record 2023 and our solid guidance for 2024, our capital allocation priorities allow us to increase our shareholder return while continuing to invest in our growth. This year, we will spend close to EUR 900 million in cash dividends, which is a 17% increase over the previous year.
It corresponds to a 49% payout ratio, well above the industry. Additionally, we will launch a share repurchase plan of circa EUR 200 million to cover remaining LTIPs, delivering on our commitment to stabilize the group share count. Finally, we anticipate investing between EUR 700 million and EUR 800 million in Sapient M&A. This will help accelerating our shift to an intelligent system. We will further expand our expertise, particularly outside of the U.S., in first-party data to nourish our core AI, in technology and new media channels to reinforce Personalization at Scale, and in Publicis Sapient engineering capabilities. We believe that our capital allocation is the best use of our cash, as it allow us to maximize shareholder return while continuing to invest in our transformation and our growth.
Over the last four years, we have delivered a total shareholder return of 160%, which represents a CAGR of 27%. That is twice as high as the second best performer in our industry. As you have seen, thanks to the very hard work of our team, material investment, and the trust of our clients, 2023 will stay as the year where we extracted ourselves from the pack, both from our direct peers and from the main IT consulting firms. We have been clearly outperforming on organic growth while maintaining the best financial KPIs and investing in our people and technology. We are committed to sustaining our outperformance in 2024, with a very solid 4%-5% organic growth.
At the same time, we will continue to invest in our people and in building capabilities, particularly in AI, that will take us into our second century. I would like to end this presentation by thanking our clients for their trust and again, our people for their hard work. Thank you all for listening, and now with Michel-Alain, we are ready to take all of your questions.
This is the conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Nicolas Langlet with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone, and congrats on the solid results. So three questions for me, please. First, on Sapient, would you say that the business has now reached the trough, and we should expect a sequential improvement from there? And do you think the business could potentially return in more normative growth rate at the end of the year? Secondly, on Epsilon, trend was again very solid in H2. Are you looking to maintain that trend in first part of the year? Is there any specific driver you expect for 2024 for Epsilon? And finally, on M&A, so you have increased the M&A envelope for 2024. Is that increase related to a catch up after a quiet H2, or you see more opportunities on the market at the moment? Thank you.
Merci, Nicolas. Thank you. A lot to unpack here. I guess we'll start with Sapient, go to Epsilon, and then we can conclude on the M&A, because, by the way, it's a right track record. Because we made the Sapient acquisition and the Epsilon acquisition that we can now focus on both our acquisition. On Sapient, a couple of important point there to come back on your question and how the momentum will come back. First, it's important to note that since we repositioned Sapient in 2019, Sapient has been a very strong growth driver for the group. We grew over the last four years by 29%. We are delivering 3% this year, which when you look at the comp of 2022, is actually a solid performance.
In 2022, we were at +19%, and you have seen that in the different areas. And when you know, and this has been said by all Publicis Sapient competitors in the IT consulting world, that our clients are definitely in a wait and see attitude, meaning it's not that we are losing account, it's not that we are not winning, it's just that they are waiting to spend in term of CapEx in their business transformation for the macro to get better. You understand that the 3%, and compared to Publicis Sapient peers, is actually what we believe a very solid performance. Now, when you look at 2024, first of all, we believe, and this is what we're hearing again from the leader of the market and other in the IT consulting firm, that client will continue to be cautious on their spend.
But despite this context, we believe that we have touched the low point in Q4, meaning that we believe that Q1 should be sequentially improving while remaining negative. And although it is too early to give you a full color, as you ask for the full year, we definitely expect Sapient performance to turn positive in the course of the full year. I guess with the other IT peers, but this is what we're going to see again in the coming months or quarter. Now, that doesn't change anything to the confidence we have in Sapient and how strategic this asset is for us. And I'm not going to spend hours on that, as you have asked three questions. But I mean, it's very important to understand that none of our clients will stop investing in their own transformation if they want to continue to grow.
So business transformation investment will come back when there is a bit more of confidence. If you look at what we presented two weeks ago on AI, hopefully you got also our strategy is Sapient, to bring together what our clients are asking now, which is marketing transformation with CMO and business transformation with CIO. And when you look at the unique position of Sapient there, again, we feel confident for the future. On Epsilon, look, it's a great story of acquisition and integration. You remember when we made the acquisition, we said, the future is about personalization at scale, the future is about identity.
At the time, we didn't know that third-party cookies will disappear, but this, of course, has accelerated the wish of our clients to have their own data and make sure that they can create a direct relationship with customer. You know, I found it pretty funny, all the prediction about is Google gonna get rid of their third-party cookies faster, sooner or later? Honestly, this is not the question anymore. Every of our clients have understand now that they can't be dependent on cookies anyway. And so we are with Epsilon after, I guess, 3 years of double-digit growth now, with an asset that when connected to Publicis Media, is performing way better than what we were expecting. You might remember at the time when we made the acquisition, we did it on the assumption and the multiple of the growth between 0 and 3.
We are at double-digit growth. Maybe on M&A, Michel-Alain, you can say a word about 2023, and I'll add something about 2024.
Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. So indeed, Nicolas, for 2023, we had an envelope between EUR 500 million and EUR 600 million. Pretty much at the end of the first semester, we closed about EUR 200 million, and in the second part of the year, we looked at several targets in different areas, but none of them were actually meeting our performance and valuation criteria, as you know, a very strict financial discipline. So we didn't execute any of this bolt-on in the second semester.
Yeah, we are very picky here. Again, what is interesting for us in the bolt-on is people and IPs, technologies, and we look for a reasonable size that we can again plug with an Epsilon or a Sapient, sometime a Publicis Media, also in production with creative, but it has to be an add. I mean, I think it's interesting to see that if you look over the last 3 years, we spent roughly EUR 1 billion in bolt-on acquisition that has been growing 40%. And the thing that we are looking at, and this is why we have been very picky last year, is not only it has to fit with our strategy, not only it has to show a potential for growth, but it has to be at the right price.
We are not ready to pay things that are too expensive at the moment, and this is why, again, it has been slower than we were expecting in 2023, and we feel confident for 2024.
Perfect. Thanks so much.
The next question is from Laura Metayer, with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Bonjour, thank you for taking my questions, and congrats on the strong quarter. Two questions from me, please. The first one on your organic growth guidance. So it's lower than what you achieved in 2023. What makes you think you wouldn't be able to grow as strongly in 2023, even at the top end of your guidance? Is it mostly because of Sapient, or is there any other reason? And then secondly, can you talk about how your data products differentiate from the marketing products based on first-party data that the large digital platforms offer? Thank you.
I'm not sure I really got the second question. Could you, give a bit more of color what you're looking for here?
Yeah, sure. So I think Google and Meta have been announcing some, you know, marketing products for their clients that leverage their first-party data. And I just wanted to kind of understand a bit more how, you know, what Epsilon offers differentiate from what these platforms offer, basically.
So I'll go fast on this one, as Google and Meta are partners, but the big difference is pretty simple. In the case of Epsilon and Publicis Media and Publicis in general, our clients own their data, which means that every time they are investing with us, everything they learn about the consumer goes back to them. While within the Google garden, everything you learn can obviously be shared. So that's a big difference now. There are some nuance there that I won't detail on that call, but this is a big thing for us, is we believe that as it represents almost 50% of investment, walled garden will be extremely important, and we will continue to work with them, as our competitor does very well. I mean, it's important for us to have this very strong relationship and continue to build on their scale.
But the belief we have, which is unique to Publicis, is that if you don't start to have a direct relationship with your customer, would it be only to spend a bit less tomorrow on paid media and more on our digital ecosystem, or being able to link what you invest with business outcome and make sure that you build what we call the data goodwill? We believe that we have a very strong advantage when it goes there. On our guidance, honestly, and I'll come back on the detail, but to make a first comment, 4%-5% is in line with our CAGR, as you know, and we've been very consistent for that. We don't look that much of our performance on a year basis.
We look at the journey we had since COVID, and more importantly, since we truly transform Publicis. So, not only it is in line with CAGR, but it is continuing to perform and outperform the market, despite what is now very high comparable. We grew at the double pace of our competition on the four-year basis and 500 basis on this year, and in a macroeconomic context, that is still super challenging, you know. We are not dismissing the fact that the context is very difficult. The difference, we believe, between us and our competition, is that by shifting from a communication partner to a transformation partner, we are talking to clients that despite the difficulties they are encountering, still need to continue to invest with people that can come with new solution for a new world.
By the way, this is why we feel so strong about the 4%, is that although, as I said, client will still be cautious when it comes to CapEx, and maybe you have a point here, Laura, which is we are, we are not assuming Sapient to be accretive of our growth this year. Although we don't know how long it will take, this kind of wait and see attitude that all of the other IT consulting firm are experiencing, we know that our client will accelerate on personalization at scale. And we know that 50% of our revenue in Epsilon and in Publicis Media will still be very accretive for our business in 2024.
This is why, again, if you want to cut the long story short, if things doesn't materially improve in terms of macro, we feel the four is very strong. And as you have seen, I think what we said in Q1 is super important. I think that starting the year, not being end loaded is super important for us. But what you should take out of that is that the four is very solid, and the five could be achieved, again, if the macro improve in H2.
Thank you.
The next question is from Adam Berlin with UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Arthur. Can I ask a couple of questions on MA first, then a question on Epsilon? On the M&A, obviously you made the decision to increase the envelope this year. What I'm trying to understand is... First question is, is this, are you trying to kind of accelerate above this 4%-5% range by doing this M&A, as in you need to do it to keep buying these assets in order to sustain the 4%-5% growth? Or are you trying to buy things that will ultimately help you accelerate outside of that 4%-5% range we're seeing over the last few years, through doing these deals? That's the first question.
I suppose tied into that is, you know, should we understand this as, like, you're making a decision based on what you see now, you need to spend EUR 700 million-EUR 800 million this year on M&A, you know, and that's a kind of one-off, and you'll, you'll review how much you allocate between buybacks and M&A next year. Or, or should we be expecting this as the kind of mix we'll see in the medium term, that you're just gonna keep needing to do this type of M&A to sustain the strategy, and so we shouldn't get too excited about higher buybacks, you know, over time? So those are the two questions on M&A. And then I just want to ask a question on Epsilon. Obviously, that's mainly a North American business today. Can you talk a little bit about Epsilon's growth outside of the U.S.?
You know, are you expecting that to see that come through in 2024, or, or how long will it take for us to see kind of Epsilon benefit from spending outside of the U.S.? Thanks very much.
Wow! That's a lot. Thank you for that. I'll start with the first one about M&A and further accelerating our growth. Hopefully, you will agree with us that we have tried to manage expectation and regain the trust of our investor over the last 4 years, by making sure that we don't overpromise things, okay? So to be clear, for the moment, we believe that 4-5, which is our CAGR, is a very strong performance, most of it maintaining the best financial KPIs of the industry.
And so, the acquisition we are doing, which is roughly to strengthen our existing capability, particularly outside of the U.S., which hopefully also answer your question on Epsilon, meaning, first party data acquisition outside of the U.S., meaning new digital media like retail media outside of the U.S., or engineering capabilities, for Sapient. We are doing all of this to continue the momentum, and if at the end of the day it resume on more growth, fantastic. But again, we are, our transformation is behind us. We are definitely outperforming our market, when it comes to organic growth and all financial ratios. For us, it's about making the demonstration that we can sustain this performance, and we are very confident on that. And then if we can do better, we can do better.
On your question about acquisition and what is our plan for the future between, I would say M&A and share buybacks. Maybe I take a minute, take a step back actually, and tell you what has been the three pillar when it comes to our shareholder value creation since 2020, because maybe it's gonna give you a bit of perspective. I'm gonna try to be concise, but that's important because the question you're raising is very important. I think that over the last years, we have done a way better job to give you a clear vision on how we're gonna allocate our cash for the year, which is what map didn't get today. It is always around three pillars, and it will be around three pillars.
First, we have a dividend strategy. We have increased significantly our dividend over those years, huh? As you remember, we have stopped applying the discount for payment of dividends in shares. We have suppressed the scrip dividend in 2021, which was a very important thing, and we have consistently increased our payout ratio to the highest of the industry today, at 49%. I mean, we are talking about an increase of 70% of our dividend, returning more than EUR 2.2 billion over the last three years. The second thing is that we have stabilized the number of shares. Again, 200 million this year.
We have introduced this kind of active share repurchase program that is having an impact on our cash, because we are talking about more than EUR 500 million of share buyback to this effect. And finally, and that conclude to your question, hopefully, I mean, investing in our capabilities through Bolton is something that we believe is highly strategic. I told you in the last three years, we have grown by 40% thanks to that, and we have improved also our offer that has helped to win new business. So, you know, we believe that we have the right balance between dividend, as I said, share repurchase and investment in our capabilities. And then, as I said before, this has allowed us in the last four years to get a total shareholder return of 160%.
It is 27% on average over 4 years, which is twice as high as the second best performer of the industry. We're gonna continue to play with those four pillar and continue with the transparency. Thank you.
The next question is from Adrien de Saint Hilaire with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Well done on those impressive numbers and outlook. I've got a few questions, if you don't mind. First, maybe a bit of a left field question, but creative is having a bit of a revival in your business, which I suppose is driven by the strong growth of production. Just wondering if you could comment on the underlying profitability of production versus legacy creative? Sticking on the topic of profitability, I know you don't really break out the profitability of each business, but can we have a sense of where Sapient and Epsilon are standing today? I know you've got an integrated country model, but some color there would be much appreciated.
And then maybe third question is, Arthur, what's your expectation in terms of market share gains, and potentially big reviews in media, in 2024? Do you think we'll see more of the likes of Pfizer, that we saw in 2023, or is there going to be a bit of a pause here? Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Merci, Adrien. I'll start with the creative. First of all, we have what we believe is a strong performance for what it is, which is creative, with a low single digit after our performance that was good last year, so we feel good about how we got there. As you said, it is partly due to production. What make us very confident in production and in the fact that it's gonna be a growth engine, that we will be able to differentiate from our peers, is that production, as media, by the way, is gonna be about data and technology tomorrow. I think the big things we have seen in the last five years is how do you link data with media and deliver personalization at scale?
The next big question is gonna be: How do you link data with production, thanks to tech, and be able to deliver product, content that is truly personalized? I don't know if you have seen our wishes, but that's a great example on how you use data and technology, and particularly GenAI, to make sure that you deliver personalized message to 100,000 people. That, for us, is not only exciting, but we believe a source of growth. Now, it's extremely difficult. It's gonna take time, and this is why we stay cautious at this stage. Do you wanna take the question on profitability?
Yeah, sure. So, I mean, in terms of profitability, just reminding a bit the different element that we've given in the past. Media is accretive to the group profitability, as you all know. Epsilon, when we bought it, was actually below the group standard, and after the work we've done in the last year, is now in line with group. And Sapient is below the group margin of 18%, but have been improving every year in the last three years. And finally, I make the link with the question you had about production.
So production is indeed a part. It's representing 25% of our pillar production and creation. This 25% is growing faster than creation. And indeed, production has a profitability which is below creation. So basically, the improvement in Sapient, the improvement in Epsilon is compensating the fact that the production development is having a push down on the creation margin. And that's the reason why we are at a stable 18%.
On the market share and review. So first on market share, yes, we are planning, and our objective is definitely to gain market share again in 2024. As we are planning to double roughly, to grow, sorry, roughly at the double of our peers, it should translate into market share. On the review, as you know now, we are not disclosing nor discussing any new business anymore. What I can tell you is that, yes, there will be some big pitches. They are in the press at the moment. What maybe can be helpful for you is there is nothing that is a different pitch at Publicis, that could have an impact for 2024.
which means that it's one of the reasons why the four is so solid, too, is that I'm touching wood because you're not gonna like what I'm telling you, but we are in a business where you can always lose an account? And so it could happen tomorrow. But for the moment, and for the year, there is nothing that will have a material impact on our growth in 2024. So only opportunity to grow, with some opportunities that are very serious for us.
Much appreciated. Thank you.
The next question is from Lisa Yang, with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and congratulations. I have a couple of as well. Maybe on the margins, could you maybe give it, give us a bit more color in terms of your assumptions to get to flat margin? Obviously, we know about the additional EUR 100 million AI investments, but given obviously the strong organic growth, like maybe you can talk about the other potential headwinds that would prevent margins from increasing. And just like, you know, over the coming years, like we're thinking about 2024, 2025, 2026, and onwards, how do you see margins evolving, especially with all the efficiencies you can get from GenAI and basically your superior organic growth? That's the first question.
The second one is on the share buyback. Could you maybe just explain a bit more, elaborate on why you decide not to increase your share buyback? I understand, you know, your pillars and your approach over the last three years, but your cash position is significant, and it will continue to increase given your Free Cash Flow generation. So what would make you reconsider a share buyback, and how would you be thinking of returning future excess cash? Is it just mostly through increasing the payout, which is already at, you know, close to the top end of the range? Or, yeah, just how are you thinking about the possibility of a buyback in the future?
And third question, just housekeeping question, given the increased M&A envelope, what contribution from M&A we should expect to see on the top line? And could you also get a guidance on net interest and tax? Thank you.
Thank you, Lisa. I propose you take margin and contribution, and then I'll say a word on share buyback, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Sure. So, Lisa, yeah, let's take the, the, I would say, the financial assumption question. So, on the structure of the P&L, if I begin with this, for 2023, personnel cost represent, as you know, 65%, 65.0, and non-personnel cost, 17.0, and that- that bring you to the 18%. So, we are going one of the... Maybe you've seen that in 2023, we've spent a bit more than EUR 100 million, EUR 110 million of severance, because we've decided to make the localized adjustment that were required on the basis of the change of our business model at the end of this year, in order to have a good start in 2024.
So we are expecting less severance in 2024, between EUR 80 million and EUR 90 million. So it's about 0.2, it's 20 basis points of improvement on the personnel cost. And in the other way around, you remember that we are investing EUR 100 million into AI in 2024, so EUR 100 million is about 80 basis points. And this 80 basis points, it's invested about half of it, so 40 basis points into personal expense, so hiring people, hiring specialists, training, and so forth and so on. And another 40 basis points in non-personal costs, which is mostly the cost of the cloud infrastructure plus the licenses and the SaaS expense that we need.
So, concluding on this, you should see a slight bump up of the personal cost to 65.2. If you do the 65.0 plus 0.2 minus 0.4, so 65.2. And when you look at the non-personnel cost, to answer your question, so you begin with 17%, you add up 0.4, and we find the, you know, that our platform of organization that we have underlined several time, is allowing us to find 60 basis points of efficiencies, which is bringing us to a non-personnel cost of 16.8. So obviously, let's be very humble on this.
I'm not precise at 10 bps, but, you know, overall, that would be the dynamics on personnel and non-personnel cost. Maybe after I take the net, I think you had a question about interest income. So on interest income, you see that our headline this year was EUR 20 million, an improvement of EUR 100 million compared to 2022. It's entirely coming from an improved remuneration of our cash due to the higher interest rates, both on the dollar, by the way, and on the euro. So it's EUR 100 million more than 2022. For 2024, we've taken as an assumption that there will be a decrease into the central bank interest rates.
We think this decrease will happen, you know, obviously, I don't have a crystal ball here, but it happen midyear, something like this, for an average between 100 bps and 125 bps. And if you factor this on our basis of cash, it's bring you to a headline which should be instead of 20, should be more around 50 to 60. Well, I thought... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Arthur.
Yeah.
I'm not- No, just, have I under- answered everything or you had something on tax? I'm not sure. There was tax, too?
Yeah, just the guidance on tax and M&A contribution to the top line.
Okay, so I finish up on tax, Arthur.
Okay.
So we, it's, so, so 24.1% this year, which is a bit, exception, and we closed a certain number of tax audit positively, so it had a, a positive impact on, on the TR. But, you should take as an assumption 24.5, 24.5, for, as a, as a proxy for, 2024. I'm done.
No, not, not to on your question on share buyback, and not to go back again through our pillars and what we are doing, particularly with our share repurchase program to stabilize account, I will make you maybe a larger answer including margin. Because at the end of the day, our logic on share buyback is the same as margin. They are we are thinking about those two things in the same way. We are always trying to find the right balance between investing in our growth, which is our priority, and the right return to shareholder.
If you look at how we stand in front of you today, I think we have found a right balance between delivering a growth that is a double of our peers, and a TSR that is twice as high as the second in the market. So again, do we have the opportunity to deliver a bit more margin in the future? We said that next year, our plan will be slightly accretive. Should we do more share buyback? Again, we are giving a first step here. We feel that we have made progress over the year, and that at the end of the day, what matters the most for us is how can we grow faster? How can the return to our shareholder be higher? And I guess on both fronts, we are coming with a strong set of results this year.
Very clear. Thank you.
The next question is from Julien Roch with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Bonjour, Arthur. Bonjour, Michel-Alain . Two questions. The first one, tech, media, and creative have been at roughly a third for a couple of years, where clearly they're no longer at a third because they have different growth rate. So it would be amazing if we could get the exact percentage of revenue for Sapient. I think you gave it at the nine months at 18%. So Sapient, Epsilon, Media, Creative, and One Publicis, i.e., the small countries, because they're not creative, they're mixed. So that'd be 5 numbers. I know you don't give them, but that would really help us forecast Publicis better. So, if you don't ask, you don't get.
And then, I'm sorry, Arthur, again, on the returns, you know, you were very clear, but with your very precise guidance on free cash flow, dividend, buyback, and M&A next year, you basically not gonna have a chance to the metrics. So you are on 0.2 net debt to EBITDA, and I understand it's a balance between investment and return to shareholders, but 0.2 strikes me as very, very conservative. So, you know, what do you think a company like Publicis should be in net debt to EBITDA? And why do you think 0.2, which is very conservative, is the right answer? Merci.
Merci. I'm gonna give it, first, I'll let you make an answer on both, and then I will do an answer on both, okay? Come on, come on, Matt, you start.
Sounds good. Okay. So, I begin with the leverage. So on the leverage, Julien, you know that we are looking at our debt, which is the financial debt, plus the debt of the lease, compared to the EBITDA. And, as you've seen, we have the leverage from a leverage, which was 1.2, to a leverage, which is 1.0. With the capital allocation we have for 2024, we do not expect more leverage, okay? So we expect this 1.0 to be stable, which is boiling down into an average net debt, which is going to be, you know, roughly the same. Obviously, depending the variation of working capital from one month to another, but should be pretty much the same.
I mean, we are not giving a leverage target per se, but we feel comfortable as a structure with a leverage at 1.0. So that's the first point. On the split of each practice, the weight of each practice in revenue, indeed, we're not giving the detail in a percentage, and I know you are disappointed by this. And indeed, we've said that Sapient, we've given the number of Sapient, so I'm gonna give you the number of Sapient, which is 16% in weight on the total of the group revenue.
Yeah, a couple of points on that. First, we said very clearly that Media plus Epsilon was 50% of our business, super accretive, actually double-digit growth for three years, if I'm not wrong now. So, if you add to that, the 16% of Sapient, that will recover growth in the future, only because client will have to invest in their business transformation, and we have a fantastic offer. You understand the reason of our confidence to continue to outperform our peers and deliver strong growth over the last year or so. Hopefully, this helps a lot.
What I would tell you also is at, and again, we are not naming any pitch, but you will be surprised of the number of media pitch we are winning, because we are infusing some creativity into it. So, although you will see the revenue stream increasing the future in some areas and maybe decreasing in others, it's gonna be more integrated every day, because at the end of the day, this is our strength, huh? Our strength is to connect data with creative media and technology like no one else. This allow us to truly bring transformation, to bring transformation to our clients. And so again, we are treating all of those areas with the same level of care and investment.
You know, coming back on your cash allocation question, again, we are always trying to look at the best balance between returns and M&A. I talked about that. But we also have to admit that we want to be prudent with our data. This is in the DNA of this company. But having said that, and let me repeat it again, because as Julien, you know this for a long time, you look at the significant progress we have made in the last three years in order to increase our return to shareholder, I think you can see a path that is pretty encouraging for the future.
Okay. Merci.
The next question is from Christophe Cherblanc with Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning. My first question was on headcounts. Can you give us the headcount at the end of 2023, and what are the plan for at least for Q1? And again, on headcounts, only 18 months, 2 years ago, we were speaking about the great resignation. It seems staff turnover is coming down everywhere. So what is it at Publicis, and is there a staff turnover level which is too low for you, meaning that you're losing some flexibility to adjust your skill set? That's the first question. And the second question is on CapEx. So Michel-Alain mentioned the rise of SaaS related expenses, so does it mean that the lower CapEx that we saw in 2023 is going to be maintained over 2024? Thank you.
Thank you very much. We're gonna start with CapEx and then take the headcount question, because I will add on to what you have to say on this one. So I'll let you start with CapEx.
Okay. So, on CapEx, you are right. We are using more and more SaaS licenses, SaaS and OpEx, which are not going into CapEx. So, I think that the level of 2023 is particularly low, but having CapEx between EUR 200-220 is a good proxy. On the headcount, throughout the year, we have recruited, net recruited, 3,700 people, with more in the second semester than in the first.
Roughly, the first two quarter was around 700, 600, 700, so you see relatively low. Then after, in the second semester, it was about 1,200 by quarter Q3, Q4. Your question about, so it's bringing the total headcount of the company to 102,000 people. In between, end of 2022 and end of 2023, you've got the 3,700 that I mentioned, plus 1,800 that we have acquired, mostly through Practia and the Corra acquisition we bought, which bought the largest part of the headcount.
Finally, in Q1 2024, we are expecting to have a net revenue, which is going to be around the one we had in Q3, Q4, so about, you know, between EUR 1,200-EUR 1,300, something like this.
I will add just to a couple of points there. I mean, we can talk about data and technology all day long, but we are still a people business. And one of the things that makes me super confident for the future is the level of attractivity we are having in the industry today. We are hopefully at the moment a safe place and an exciting place at the same time, which is pretty rare. We talked a lot about the 3,700 people that we hired at the time that people are laying off, but we didn't insist enough on our bonus pool. I mean, we have sustained a very high level of bonus pool, a bit more than EUR 500 million, if I'm right.
We did that consistently, and we are continuing to do that, and we don't consider this as an ability to adjust on anything. This goes first, because our people goes first. The last thing is obvious, with 4%-5%, of course, we are in a trend to continue to hire. Having said that, of course, we do that very selectively, and we are grading our bench month after month. If you ask, when we meet with our manager, we said, "Look, there are only two priorities, and it's a very simple business. It's our client and our people, and we should bring the same level of care to both.
And so, on the staff turnover, is it down sharply versus 2022?
... versus 2022? No, no, no, no, not really. It has stabilized. The great resignation is done. I would say the big topic is not this one. The big topic is right down to the office. As you have seen, we have been pretty clear that we want our people to come back. I guess we are the only one in our industry that did that, but this is absolutely critical for us because we want to preserve the culture, we want the youth to continue to learn, and we wanna make sure that by getting together, we can accelerate our goals. So I don't see any problem on the staff turnover getting down. I do see a challenge for our industry to bring people back, particularly in the U.S., and it's not the case in Europe or in Asia.
Okay, thank you.
The next question is from Conor O'Shea with Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Just two remaining questions. The first question on client sector spend. So you mentioned earlier that TMT was the only sector down in 2023 in terms of spend and in common with your peers with their improvement in their own top line over the last few quarters. Are you seeing any improvement, or sorry, expectation of improvement in 2024? And conversely, on the luxury goods side, I think we've had some of the major players suggesting they will rein back their spend, which has been increasing very significantly in the last few years. Are you seeing any of that, and to what extent are you exposed to that?
Just a follow-up question on just a small part of your business, Middle East and Africa, but one of your peers had sort of very weak organic growth numbers there, and in your press release, the margins fell quite significantly, seemed to be very volatile from one year to the next. But can you give us any insight as to whether the geopolitical situation over there is having any impact on your business? Thank you.
Thanks, Conor. Again, Matt, maybe you take a bit of both, starting with the client sector on, on Middle East-
Yeah, yeah.
And then I recap.
No, so I think, Conor, on the client sector, we definitely not in the same situation as some of our competitor. In 2023, as you have seen, I mean, yes, we've seen a decrease in TMT, but a slight one, which at the end of the day, boil down to a -3%. The reason behind this is simply because we are not selling the same services. I mean, it's clearly what we are selling is very useful to the transformation of our clients. So that's for TMT.
So we don't expect a great rebound of TMT in 2024, but at the same time, we are cautiously, let's say, confident. On the dynamic by sector, I think you'll carry on to see our large sector increase, grow during 2024. I'm mentioning obviously healthcare, automotive, food and beverage, retail, and non-food consumer products. So in non-food consumer products, that's where we have our luxury sector that you were mentioning, on which we again are cautiously confident. So I think that's on the sector. Maybe I addressed right away the point about EMEA.
So in EMEA, we have a very, very strong operation, which is extremely well integrated between marketing, transformation, and Sapient. It's, I think, one of the best model of operation we have throughout the world. We have opened some very large client in the area. And the reason why you see a pressure on margin is very simple. It's due to Israel and the situation in Israel, in which basically the triggering of the war, we suddenly had, as you can imagine, a drop into revenue.
And as we've done, you know, with previous conflict with Ukraine, we obviously decided not to adjust our resources, keep everybody on the payroll, and make sure that we help them the most possible to go through this difficult time.
Yeah, I know. Middle East and Africa is a very dynamic region for us. As Matt said, it is truly advanced in our model because we started from scratch in areas like Sapient, so we build it from the ground. And by the way, the one that has built that over the last seven years will be our new CFO starting tomorrow. So he's finishing this today and starting his new job tomorrow, but that's Loris Nold, who has built the operation over time with great teams over there. On client spend, I'm not gonna add a lot, but I will still, because I think we need to always do a better job on that, insist on what Matt said about the difference of offer we have with our competition, okay? Take telco.
Telco is really about personalization at scale now, and the fact that we have Epsilon plus media, plus our ability to deliver content that is personalized, allow us to mitigate the downturn in this area better than anyone else, at least when you look at our numbers. So I think hopefully this answers your point, Conor, and we're gonna move to the last question, right?
Right, yes.
There is the last question.
Thank you.
Thanks, Conor. Merci.
Thank you.
The last question is from Tom Singlehurst with Citi. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. It's Tom here from Citi. First things first, a big thank you to Michel-Alain, Alessandra for all your hard work over the last few years, and, I know you've got some great successes in place, but I think you'll be much missed. I thought I should say that to begin with. But, two questions, one on the phasing of growth through the year. You're quite clear that you expect the Q1, 4%-5%, but then you talk about, or at least allude to, maybe a slightly stronger second half. I'm just wondering whether we should read anything into what that means for the second quarter.
I suppose the way you would square it is maybe the second quarter gets a bit tougher, but I'm conscious I might be overreading that. So, you know, a discussion of phasing through the year would be useful. And then the second question on M&A. I mean, if we look at what's driven the success for the group in the US, it's that sort of combination of scale, capability and the sort of integrated approach to go to market. I'm just interested in whether you feel that in areas like APAC and LATAM, you have the scale that's necessary to really dominate in the event that those markets sort of rebound a bit more aggressively. So can you talk about M&A and sort of geographic sort of holes in the group?
That would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
Tom, from Citi, you have stolen my conclusion on Map and Alessandra, so, but, it's fine. I'll come back to that later. Look, I'll start with APAC and LATAM. Honestly, it is two regions where we feel very confident, and if you look at our track record and performance, particularly in APAC and particularly in China, hopefully you will agree with me. I think we have made interesting and significant investment for the region in LATAM. We've been technology on first-party data that position us well for the future. Now, we have to be very honest, it's a small part of our business, and the growth is only having a small material impact on our overall business, so, but we feel that we have a good offer. We are winning stuff.
Again, we are not naming any client anymore, but if you look in the price, you will see that we have a couple of significant win there, so I feel good about that. I think we should have spent more time on Asia and particularly on China. What is happening there is pretty remarkable for Publicis, so the job that has been done by Jane and the team in the region is very, very strong. I mean, let's be clear, China is not a big country for us, but it is in most of our client case the second country our global clients, and sometimes the first.
When you look at our new business track record in this region, our ability to stay positive and continue to grow, despite the difficulties that the country have been conformed to, and by the way, looking at the leader in the market and the complexity it is to grow there, again, we feel that not only we have the right team, but to come back to your question, we have the right capabilities. Okay? And so, we feel good in both region. Now, again, I don't want to oversell you anything. What makes the biggest part of our business is the U.S. and Europe. It's great to see, by the way, that Europe is growing double digit for the second year in a row.
It's great to see, and this is something that is gonna be interesting to look on overall business, the dynamic that we continue to have in the US, despite very strong comparable too far, and this is a very good news, I guess. And so we feel good about that. Let me maybe take your phasing on growth as a wrap-up. I'm not gonna come back on 2023. I guess we talked enough about that. Let's go on 2024, and I'll address ends on your question. We have a guidance from 4%-5%, with, as I said, a very solid 4%, and a Q1 within this guidance, to come back to your question. This is particularly important when you know that the microeconomic context is not improving, and that the comparable is pretty high, okay?
I am not gonna give you a guidance for Q2, but you should not see anything wrong about Q2. For the moment, we are on a track record that make us confident for the year. Now, of course, we're gonna try to shoot for the five, but for the five to happen, we need, again, to see less cuts in classical advertising, and it's way too early to say, and we need our clients at Sapient, but as any other IT consultant, to understand that it's time to reinvest.
And the day this happen, which of course there will be almost no lag between the moment of the macroeconomic situation gets better and the fact that they invest, because the plan are there, is that the CapEx needs to be spent, make us confident that if we can get an H2 that is a bit beyond guidance, in H2, we could get to the five. And so we have done on purpose to give you a guidance that is pretty short, that is pretty short, not only because, again, we know exactly where our deliver to get there, but more importantly, because again, we feel confident for 2024, thanks to our model and thanks to our people.
Look, you've stolen my conclusion, but I would like to thank again, Michel-Alain, for those three years. I would like to thank Alessandra, that has been with us since the difficult time of Publicis. I mean, I don't know if there is an IR that has such a stock growth track record over the time you've been there. So, you came with us at the moment that many people were doubting us, and you were there all along the journey. I wish you both very good luck with your new job. I mean, one will be in London, the other one in Switzerland. I don't know which I prefer, but I'm not gonna make any comment on that call.
What I can tell you is that we're gonna both miss you a lot, and we are very grateful for everything you've been doing. Welcome back to Jean-Michel Bonamy. It's not like it's a new thing, and most of you know him. Loris Nold is not that far. It's pretty funny because we decided, and are we close to that because I think he says a lot about Publicis. We are focused on execution. Our transformation is done. Big acquisition is done. We are about to outperform the market consistently year after year and increasing the shareholder return year after year.
And so the fact that Loris is still today working on his former job while having prepared this transition for the last three months and be ready to meet some investor tomorrow, is exactly what we want, which is focus on our business, focus on our clients, and focusing in bringing you the best return. So I thank you very much for listening, and, I guess I will see some of you in the coming days. Merci beaucoup!