WPP’s shares surged by more than a quarter on Thursday, showing signs of recovery after thousands of job cuts and heavy investment in AI as part of a turnaround effort.

The company, one of the world’s largest advertising and marketing groups, reported on Thursday signs of improvement in its core creative and media businesses, which have been hard hit by rivals poaching key clients and the industry-wide upheaval triggered by cheaper and quicker AI tools.

First-half revenue less pass-through costs — the preferred metric for WPP, which accounts for fees paid to external suppliers — was down 4.7 per cent on a like-for-like basis to £4.7bn, the company reported. 

But the fall of 2.8 per cent in the second quarter to £2.5bn was an improvement on the first three months of the year on the back of a better run of new client wins, when the same measure fell almost 7 per cent. The results were at the higher end of company guidance and better than analysts expected. Adjusted pre-tax profit was down 7.7 per cent to £277mn.

Former Microsoft executive Cindy Rose joined as chief executive in September last year and immediately launched a strategic and operational review of the business to try to streamline its disparate units and focus more on client delivery. Shares had fallen sharply over the past 18 months on the back of a succession of profit warnings. WPP also reported that 8,468 jobs had been cut since the first half of 2025 as a result of restructuring and cost-cutting initiatives. Staff costs of £3.5bn were down 5.9 per cent compared with the first half of last year.

The company said it expected to raise at least £200mn from sales of non-core businesses, mainly smaller agencies and investments. WPP’s shares rose by 27 per cent in London trading. The group continues to review other parts of the business, which could lead to a sale of its PR agency Burson, according to people familiar with the plans. Joanne Wilson, WPP’s chief financial officer, also said the review would include its 40 per cent stake in Kantar, the market research company that it owns with private equity group Bain.

For the second half of the year WPP said it expected an improving like-for-like “growth trajectory”, with revenue less pass-through costs overall down low to mid-single digits. Rose said that while “legacy account losses continue to weigh, Q2 saw a further sequential improvement in LFL growth, highlighting the momentum we are building across the company”.

She added: “While the turnaround of our financial performance will take time to fully flow through, our strong new business wins and improved client retention, as well as progress on cost savings and portfolio actions, demonstrate that we are building a simpler, more competitive and higher-performing WPP.”