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Publicis denies accusation of accounting irregularities

Publicis Groupe has strongly denied allegations of wrongful accounting, received yesterday by French regulators from an anonymous source.

The letter says the French marcoms giant “overvalued its organic growth for 2016 and 2017” via an “early application of IFRS 15” (an accounting standard relating to the booking of contracts).

In a statement Publicis calls this a destabilisation attempt from someone who “obviously has no knowledge of accounting standards and is proceeding by amalgam, for the sole purpose of creating doubt and disturbing the reality of Publicis Groupe’s figures.” The Groupe says it’s considering its legal options.

Back in May Publicis Groupe had to refute allegations of inappropriate accounting brought against it by French advisory group Gouvernance en Action, Gouvernance en Action director Fabrice Remon and French magazine L’Obs.

That related to the treatment of €130m in cash and €20m in software credits from German software publisher SAP which accrued from a delay in installing SAP’s software.

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