wpp cut its growth guidance for the year on friday as it reported a fall in its pretax profit for the first half as activity in its biggest market the us was hurt by lower tech spend which hit revenue the londonbased advertising group now sees likeforlike growth in revenue less passthrough costs for 2023 between 15 and 3 down from the previously guided 3 to 5 range its headline operating profit margin its still expected to be around 150 it said the company posted pretax profit for the six months ended june 30 of 204 million pounds 2595 million compared with gbp419 million a year earlier consensus compiled by visible alpha had seen the figure at gbp4614 million headline operating profit margin was 115 for the period it said revenue less passthrough costsa key metric for the companywas gbp581 billion compared with gbp551 billion this represents 20 onyear growth on a likeforlike basis for the sixmonth period it said consensus had the figure at gbp587 billion with likeforlike growth of 295 growth in north america declined over the second quarter due to lower revenues from technology clients and delays in project spend it said