In Retail Media, the Carrefour Group and Publicis announced their intention to create a joint venture to address this fast-growing segment in Continental Europe and Latin America. By combining the “CitrusAd powered by Epsilon” technology of Publicis with the knowledge and Retail Media expertise of Carrefour Links, this new joint venture will build a complete media player that will cover the entire Retail Media value chain. The platform will develop the technology to create advertising spaces and access the data for distributors and will go as far as the full marketing of media and data solutions with advertisers, relying directly on transactions, in Continental Europe, Brazil and Argentina. The joint venture will be held 51% by Carrefour and 49% by Publicis. It is expected to start operations during the first half of 2023, subject to the usual regulatory conditions and legal consultations.
Following the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Publicis announced in March 2022 its withdrawal from Russia, with the transfer of control of its agencies to local management. The Groupe transferred control of its operations to Sergey Koptev, founding Chairman of Publicis in Russia, with a contractual commitment to ensure a future for its 1,200 employees in the country. Publicis stopped its business and investments in Russia, and the cession was effective immediately. This disposal, effective immediately, led to an exceptional loss on disposal of euro 87 million. Russia has been deconsolidated since April 1, 2022.
Total acquisition costs for entities integrated during 2022 (gross payments, after excluding cash and cash equivalents acquired) came to euro 523 million, including euro 119 million in earn-out payments. In addition, euro 49 million was paid out as part of the disposal of Russia (cash of divested entities).
There are no other significant investments or divestments underway.
Publicis Groupe will continue its investments to provide proposals and solutions to its clients faced with numerous challenges (consumer behavior, multiplication of communication channels, increasing weight of omni-channel commerce, emergence of new players from digital technologies). Thus, all future investments will aim to improve our offering, combining our creative, media, data and technological expertise.
Moreover, as at December 31, 2022 the Groupe also had commitments of euro 185 million under earn-out payments and euro 30 million for non-controlling interest buy-outs, a total of euro 215 million, of which euro 69 million is due in less than one year.
