AFP - France's JC Decaux, the biggest outdoor advertising group in Europe and Asia, said on Wednesday its net profit plunged in 2009 during the "worst advertising downturn on record."

The company said it would not pay a dividend to shareholders for 2009 and would "maintain strict cash and cost management" this year after its net profit fell 77.3 percent to 24.5 million euros (33.25 million dollars).

"Faced with the worst advertising downturn on record, JC Decaux implemented a successful cost reduction programme which helped reduce the impact on our margin and coupled with a selective investment strategy also ensured that the group delivered improved free cash flow for the year," chief executive Jean-Francois Decaux said in a statement.

"The performance of our teams around the world and the robustness and adaptability of our business model underpinned these results and enabled us to clearly outperform most of our direct competitors," he said.

The world's second biggest outdoor advertising group said its operating profit fell 28 percent to 392 million euros, beating a forecast by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires who had predicted 368.5 million euros.

The company also said sales fell by 11.5 percent to 1.92 billion euros in 2009.

JC Decaux forecast a slight rebound in the market in 2010 and said the company could achieve an organic sales growth of five percent in the first quarter.

"However the market continues to be characterised by reduced visibility and it remains unclear whether this is the beginning of a sustained advertising recovery," Decaux said.

"Reflecting this and in order to maximise the Group's ability to take advantage of market opportunities, we will maintain strict cash and cost management in 2010," he said.