WPP has halved its dividend and announced a strategic review after the advertising company posted a 47.8% decline in operating profit to £221m in its H1 results.

The group revealed its dividend had been cut to 7.5p per share as it also reported a 7.8% fall in revenue to £6.67bn, with a like-for-like decline of 2.4%.

WPP, formerly the largest advertising agency in the world, also confirmed that its headcount since the start of the financial year is down by 3.7%, to an estimated global workforce of 104,000. The company said the severance action it had taken in Q2 would generate over £150m of annualised gross cost savings from 2026.

It added that it would continue to “prioritise” investment in AI and data including the integration of new AI tools into WPP Open.

WPP CEO, Mark Read, said the company’s H1 had been “challenging” amid pressures on client spending and a “slower new business environment”.

“The board is declaring an interim dividend of 7.5p ahead of a review of the strategy and future capital allocation policy which will be led by Cindy Rose, who succeeds me as CEO on 1 September, added Read. “The priority is to drive sustainable growth supported by an appropriate level of financial flexibility while balancing returns to shareholders.

“Throughout my seven years as CEO, technological innovation has been a constant and I believe that thanks to our investment in AI we can look to the future with confidence.”

Commenting on the market reaction, AJ Bell head of financial analysis, Danni Hewson, said it was a “measure of just how beaten down WPP’s share price is” that the results only provoked a “modest” sell-off in the shares.

“Make no mistake this was a really weak set of numbers – the last under departing CEO Mark Read,” Hewson added. “Rebasing the dividend takes an unpopular decision out of the hands of incoming CEO Cindy Rose. She will have plenty on her plate when she starts at the beginning of next month with a strategic review of the business.”

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