NEW YORK — Omnicom Group, which owns numerous PR firms including FleishmanHillard, Ketchum and Porter Novelli, has reported that its PR revenues grew 4.4% on an organic basis during Q3, marking its first quarter of PR growth this year.

The group's PR revenue reached $347.6m during the quarter, up 5.5% on a reported basis, compared to 1.1% growth in the previous quarter. 

The results mean that Omnicom's PR firms have reversed an organic revenue decline of  -0.4% for the year to date. They are now up 1.2% for the first three quarters of this year, posting PR revenue of $1.02bn.

PR was one of the group's best-performing units during Q3, lagging only advertising which grew by 6.2%. Overall, the group grew global revenue by 3.2% on an organic basis for the quarter.

Earlier this year, Omnicom restructured its PR firms to sit under the newly-formed Omnicom PR Group, led by former Porter Novelli CEO Karen van Bergen. The group has found sustained PR growth difficult to achieve in recent years, which has been accompanied by a relative lack of acquisitions.