ad firm wpp s profits surge 15 uk advertising giant wpp has posted largerthanexpected annual profits and predicted that it will outperform the market in 2005 pretax profits rose 15 from a year ago to reach 546m 104bn ahead of average analysts forecasts of 532m revenues were 43bn while the firm s operating margins were 141 which it said could reach 148 by 2006 during the year wpp bought us rival grey global creating a giant big enough to rival sector leader omnicom chief executive martin sorrell on friday told reuters news agency that wpp had submitted a proposal for united business media s nop world market research unit analysts say the unit sell could sell for up to 350m wpp in recent years has also bought firms such as ogilvy mather and cordiant communications it also includes the firms young rubicam and j walter thompson events such as the olympics helped boost wpp s profits in 2004 the company said the us congressional elections and the fifa world cup are likely to present advertising opportunities in the near future the longterm outlook looks very favourable because of media and technology developments and the strength of the us economy wpp said