APN Outdoor and oOh! Media Announce Merger / Australia

AUSTRALIA — APN Outdoor and oOh! Media will merge operations on or around April 2017 to create one of the largest media companies with reach across across Australia and New Zealand. The combined company will have digital and traditional media assets across out-of-home ad space that include roadside billboards, transit, rail, airports, retail, offices and other environments.

The combined companies will have an enhanced geographic presence across Australia and New Zealand with 8,985 digital out-of-home screens and 63,200 traditional static panels across metropolitan and regional locations. The combination of portfolios will create an attractive offering for advertisers, with expanded audience reach and diversity. These factors are expected to provide an attractive product offering to end customers and media agencies.

According to APN Outdoor and oOh! Media, the combined companies will benefit from synergies that include the experience and expertise that comes from a combined management team and board. The Board will comprise eight Directors, with four each from APN Outdoor’s and oOh!media’s current Boards. Doug Flynn will be appointed as the Merged Group’s Chairman, Brendon Cook appointed as the Merged Group’s CEO and Managing Director, and Wayne Castle as the Chief Financial Officer.

The merger is expected to deliver pre-tax cost synergies of at least $20 million per year, on a full run-rate basis and excluding one-off transaction and integration costs. Identified cost synergies primarily reflect the leveraging of the combined infrastructure, the elimination of duplication in the combined business and the reduction of outsourced costs. These include savings in broad group expenditure, costs relating to installation, production and systems, rationalization of head office costs and savings in outsourced costs under a single operating model. These synergies are expected to be achieved within two years from completion of the Transaction, while one-off implementation costs are projected to be approximately $10 million.

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