For the first quarter, organic growth was negative 1.8% which positions us for a very strong recovery for 2021.
Getting back to our organic growth by geography, in the United States organic growth was down 1% an improvement of over 8% from the fourth quarter.
The UK was down 6.4%, about half the decline in the fourth quarter.
The Euro and the non-Euro markets were down 3.2% as compared to a negative 9.2% in Q4.
As you turn positive in Q1 with organic growth of 2.5% Australia continued to perform well and we saw a significant return to growth in our events business in China which combined with improvements in the other operations in the market resulted in double-digit growth.
Latin America experienced negative 2.4% growth in Q1 and meaningful sequential improvement compared to the fourth quarter.
EBIT margin in the first quarter was 13.6% as compared to 12.3% in the first quarter of 2020.
Net income for the quarter was $287.8 million, an improvement of 11.5% from 2020 and earnings per share was $1.33 per share, a year-over-year increase of 11.8%.
We generated $383 million in free cash flow in the quarter and ended with $4.9 billion in cash.
This follows our recent decision to increase our dividend by 7.7% to $0.70 per share.
Since we launched Omni 3 years ago, we've continued to [Indecipherable] and insights platform.
In Q2, we will be launching Omni 2.0 using next generation API connections to seamlessly orchestrate, identity sources and platforms -- insights and superior decisioning for our clients across all our networks and practice areas.
Just as important Omni 2.0 continues to build on our commitment to consumer privacy and transparency.
At the same time, we orchestrate datasets from about 100 privacy compliance sources to provide a comprehensive view of the consumer across devices.
Through this master framework agreement, Omnicom will produce work for Alliance on a global and local level, offering creative solutions to activate the global brand strategy for more than 70 countries, where Alliance operates.
BBDO, TBWA and Goodby Silverstein & Partners, were all named to Fast Company's prestigious list of Most Innovative Companies for 2021 making Omnicom the only holding company -- there are three agencies ranked in the top 10 in the advertising sector.
With our launch of OPEN2.0 last year, we have made a clear action plan for achieving systemic equity across Omnicom.
As John said, as we move through the first quarter of 2021, we continue to see an improvement in business conditions particularly when compared to the peak of the pandemic during the second quarter of 2020.
As we anticipated, we again saw a sequential improvement in organic revenue performance, a decrease of 1.8% in the first quarter of this year which is a considerable improvement in comparison to the last three quarters of 2020.
Turning to slide 3 for a summary of our revenue performance for the first quarter, organic revenue performance was negative $60.6 million or 1.8% for the quarter.
The decrease represented a sequential improvement versus the last three quarters of 2020, including the unprecedented decrease in organic revenue of 23% in Q2 11.7% in Q3 and 9.6% in Q4.
The impact of foreign exchange rates increased our revenue by 2.8% in the quarter.
Above the 250 basis point increase we estimated entering the quarter, as the dollar continued to weaken against some of our larger currencies compared to the prior year.
The impact on revenue from acquisitions, net of dispositions decreased revenue by 0.4% in line with our previous projection, and as a result our reported revenue in the first quarter increased 0.6% the $3.43 billion when compared to Q1 of 2020.
Returning to slide one, our reported operating profit for the quarter was $465 million, up 10.8% when compared to Q1 of 2020 and operating margin for the quarter improved to 13.6% compared to 12.3% during Q1 of 2020.
Our operating profit and the 130 basis point improvement in our margins this quarter was again positively impacted from our actions to reduce payroll and real estate costs during the second quarter of 2020, as well as continued savings from our discretionary addressable spend cost categories including T&E general office expenses, professional fees, personnel fees and other items, including cost savings resulting primarily from the remote working environment.
Our reported EBITDA for the quarter was $485 million and EBITDA margin was 14.2% also up 130 basis points when compared to Q1 of last year.
They increased by about $7 million in the quarter but excluding the impact of exchange rates, these costs were down by about 2.6%.
In comparison, these costs which are directly linked to changes in our revenue decreased nearly 40% in the second quarter of last year, 20% in the third quarter and 12.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020, consistent with the decline in our revenues across all of our businesses in those quarters.
Occupancy and other costs, which are less linked to changes in revenue declined by approximately $18 million reflecting our continuing efforts to reduce our infrastructure Call as well as the decrease in general office expenses since the majority of our staff has continue to work remotely.
In addition, finally, depreciation and amortization declined by 3.7 million.
Net interest expense for the quarter was $47.5 million compared to Q1 of last year and down $500,000 versus Q4 of 2020 -- 2020 our gross interest expense was down $1.5 million an interest income decreased by $1 million.
When compared to the first quarter of 2020, interest expense was down -- from $4.7 million, mainly resulting from $7.7 million charge we took in Q1 of 2020 in connection with the early retirement of $600 million of senior notes that were due to mature in Q3 of 2020.
That was offset by the incremental increase in interest expense from the additional interest on the incremental $600 million of debt we issued at the onset of the pandemic in early April 2020.
Net interest expense was also negatively impacted by a decrease in interest income of $6.4 million versus Q1 of 2020 due to lower interest rates on our cash balances.
Our effective tax rate for the first quarter was 26.8% up a bit from the Q1 2020 tax rate of 26% but in line with the range, we estimate for 2021 of 26.5% to 27%.
As a result, our reported net income for the first quarter was $287.8 million up 11.5% or 29.7% million when compared to Q1 of 2020.
Our diluted share count for the quarter decreased 0.3% versus Q1 of last year to 216.8 million shares.
As a result, our diluted earnings per share for the first quarter was $1.33 up $0.14 or 11.8% per share when compared to the prior year.
While helped by FX -- was [Technical Issues] or up $20 million 0.6% from Q1 of 2020.
The net impact of changes in exchange rates increased reported revenue by 2.8% or $95.7 million in revenue for the quarter.
In light of the recent strengthening of our basket of foreign currencies against the US dollar and where currency rates currently are, our current estimate is that FX could increase our reported revenues by around 3.5% to 4% in the second quarter and moderate in the second half of 2021 resulting in a full year projection of approximately 2% positive.
The impact of our acquisition and disposition activities over the past 12 months resulted in a decrease in revenue of $15.1 million in the quarter or 0.4% which is consistent with our estimate entering the year.
As previously mentioned, our organic revenue decreased $60.6 million or 1.8% in the first quarter when compared to the prior year.
We expect to return to positive organic growth in the second quarter and for the full year.
For the first quarter -- the split was 59% for advertising and 41% for marketing services.
As for the organic change by discipline, advertising was up 1.2% Our media businesses achieved positive organic growth for the first time since Q1 of 2020 and our global and national advertise -- when compared to the last three quarters although performance mixed by agency.
[Technical Issues] 7.2% on a continued strong performance and the delivery of a superior [Technical Issues] service offering.
CRM commerce and brand consulting was down 4.2% mainly related to decreased activity in our shopper marketing businesses due to client losses in prior quarters.
In the quarter, the discipline was down over 33%.
CRM Execution and Support was down 13% as our field marketing non-for profit and research businesses continue to lag.
PR was negative 3.5% in Q1 on mixed performance from our global PR agencies, and finally, our healthcare agencies again facing a very difficult comparison back to the performance of Q1 2020 when they experienced growth in excess of 9% were flat organically.
Now, turning to the details of our regional mix of business on page 5 you can see the quarterly split was 54.5% in the US, 3% for the rest of North America.
10.4% in the UK, 17.1% for the rest of Europe, 11.7% for Asia-Pacific, 1.8% for Latin America and 1.5% for the Middle East and Africa.
In reviewing the details of our performance by region, organic revenue in the first quarter in the US was down $18 million or 1%.
Our advertising discipline was positive for the quarter on the strength of our media businesses and our CRM precision [Technical Issues] which once again experienced our largest organic decline over 34% in the US while our other disciplines were down single-digits [Technical Issues] down 3.2%.
These were down 6.4% organically.
The rest of Europe was down 3.2% organically.
Outside the Eurozone organic growth was up around 5% during the quarter and organic revenue performance in Asia-Pacific for the quarter was up 2.5%.
Latin America was down 2.4% organically in the quarter.
And lastly, the Middle East and Africa was down 10% for the quarter.
Turning to our cash flow performance on Slide 7, you can see that in the first quarter, we generated $382 million of free cash flow, excluding changes in working capital which was up about $20 million versus the first quarter of last year.
As for our primary uses of cash on Slide 8 dividends paid to our common shareholders were up $140 million, effectively unchanged when compared to last year.
The $0.05 per share increase in the quarterly dividend that we announced in February will impact our cash payments from Q2 forward.
Dividends paid to our non-controlling interest shareholders totaled $14 million.
Capital expenditures in Q1 were $12 million, down as expected when compared to last year.
Acquisitions including earn-out payments totaled $9 million and since we stopped stock repurchases, the positive $2.7 million in net proceeds in net proceeds represents cash received from stock issuances under our employee share plans.
As a result of our continuing efforts to prudently manage the use of our cash, we were able to generate $210 million in free cash flow during the first 3 months of the year.
Regarding our capital structure at the end of the quarter, our total debt is $5.76 billion, up about $650 million since this time last year, but down $50 million as of this past year end.
When compared to March 31 of last year, the major components of the change were the issuance of $600 million of 10-year senior notes due in 2030, which were issued in early April at the outset of the pandemic.
Along with the increase in debt of approximately $80 million resulting from the FX impact of converting our billion-euro denominated borrowings into dollars at the balance sheet date.
Our net debt position as of March 31 was $863 million up about $650 million from last year-end, but down $1.5 billion when compared to Q1 of 2020.
The increase in net debt since year-end was the result of the typical uses of working capital that historically occur which totaled about $840 million and was partially offset by the $210 million we generated in free cash flow during the past three months.
Over the past 12 months, the improvement of net debt is primarily due to our positive free cash flow of $860 million.
Positive changes in operating capital of $537 million and the impact of FX on our cash and debt balances which decreased our net debt position by about $190 million.
As for our debt ratios, our total debt to EBITDA ratio was 3.1 times and our net debt to EBITDA ratio was 0.5 times and finally, moving to our historical returns on Slide 10.

Summary:
EBIT margin in the first quarter was 13.6% as compared to 12.3% in the first quarter of 2020.
Net income for the quarter was $287.8 million, an improvement of 11.5% from 2020 and earnings per share was $1.33 per share, a year-over-year increase of 11.8%.
As John said, as we move through the first quarter of 2021, we continue to see an improvement in business conditions particularly when compared to the peak of the pandemic during the second quarter of 2020.
The impact on revenue from acquisitions, net of dispositions decreased revenue by 0.4% in line with our previous projection, and as a result our reported revenue in the first quarter increased 0.6% the $3.43 billion when compared to Q1 of 2020.
Returning to slide one, our reported operating profit for the quarter was $465 million, up 10.8% when compared to Q1 of 2020 and operating margin for the quarter improved to 13.6% compared to 12.3% during Q1 of 2020.
As a result, our diluted earnings per share for the first quarter was $1.33 up $0.14 or 11.8% per share when compared to the prior year.
We expect to return to positive organic growth in the second quarter and for the full year.