French advertising agency Publicis has said it would be “very difficult” for it to meet its annual target of 4 percent organic sales growth after a slowdown in the second quarter.

This has been blamed on the failure of its planned merger with Omnicom in May.

Growth in North America was not enough to offset its weakness in Europe, China and India.

Its share price fell to its lowest level on Tuesday since August last year, a month after the planned merger was announced.

Publicis is the third largest ad agency in the world and its deal with Omnicom, the second largest, was meant to create the world’s largest agency.