Aegis, the media planning and buying group, said yesterday that it had grown at almost double the rate of the global advertising market in the first half of 2007.

Robert Lerwill, chief executive, said that annual growth of 20 per cent at the group’s digital media arm and significant business wins had led to first-half organic revenue growth of 9.6 per cent.

Mr Lerwill said that Aegis’s digital media business showed no sign of a slowdown in growth, helping to boost pretax profits by 8.7 per cent to £41.3 million. Revenues were up 7.7 per cent at £499 million. “2007 is the eleventh successive year we have outperformed the market,” Mr Lerwill said.

He has a positive outlook for 2008, highlighting further growth from digital and the impact of big events such as the Beijing Olympics. Aegis has clients including Coca-Cola in China and adidas, both expected to be active advertisers throughout the Games.

Net new business was $1.5 billion (£742 million) in the first half of 2007, including key accounts such as the global media buying business for Twentieth Century Fox and the European, Middle East and Africa buying duties for Johnson & Johnson.

Organic growth at the Aegis Media division was 9.8 per cent and 9.3 per-cent at Synovate, the research arm. Analysts had been expecting overall organic growth of about 8 per cent.

Analysts at Citigroup said: “This is an improvement on previous guidance of flat margins. We see these as a strong set of numbers. Organic growth is better than expected and suggests upward pressure to full-year forecasts.”

Aegis has long been viewed as a potential takeover target, with the advertising giants WPP and Publicis viewed as possible buyers.

However, Aegis is nearly 30 per cent owned by Vincent Bolloré, the French industrialist who is also a controlling stockholder and chairman of Havas, the French advertising group.

Mr Bolloré, who first began buying shares in Aegis in 2005, has made numerous attempts to secure board-level representation at Aegis but has so far failed to win over investors, who have listened to the group’s management.

The group’s shares were up ¼p at 130¼p yesterday.

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