New look oOh!media reports double-digit organic revenue growth

oOh!media has announced double-digit organic revenue growth, together with a strong fourth-quarter contribution from the Commute business (formerly Adshel) for the year ended 31 December 2018 (“CY18”).

• Organic revenue increased by 10% to $416.8 million.
• The contribution from the Commute business, which was acquired on 28 September 2018, resulted in total revenue increasing by 27% to $482.6 million.
• Total underlying EBITDA increased by 25% to $112.5 million with organic underlying EBITDA growth (excluding Commute) increased by 5% to $94.2 million.
• Digital revenue increased by 27% to $288.1 million.
• Gross profit was $225.7m, up 29% on CY17.

oOh!media has reported these operational highlights:

Successfully integrating Commute’s highly complementary segments of street furniture and rail.

Strong revenue growth in Fly and Locate.

Continued delivery of ground-breaking campaigns using different levels of creative content and data across multiple formats, demonstrating the diversity, reach and effectiveness of the oOh! portfolio.

oOh!’s CEO Brendon Cook said 2018 was a transformational year as the company continued to build a sustainable and growing out of home business for the future.

“The acquisition of Commute brings the highly complementary segments of street furniture and rail to our portfolio. This ensures oOh! has the most diverse and integrated national audience delivery network in the industry, extending our audience reach to well above 90% of the Australian population, and the largest coverage in New Zealand.

“Commute delivered strong revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter and we are successfully integrating the business with a new structure centred on serving our customers.

“As out of home is being transformed by technology, we continue to lead the industry in creating a new media business driven by data, content and innovation.

“We continue our investment in our all-of-business operating system. This is built on advanced machine learning with enhanced technological infrastructure and will enable our clients to leverage our digital sign network and engage with audiences more effectively and efficiently.

“We expect this investment will deliver significant operating efficiencies to oOh!, including optimised property retention, higher sales and margin, and improvements in our staff to revenue ratio.

“Meanwhile, the business continues to generate strong cash flow with operating cash flow increasing by 41% to $71.2 million compared to CY17.”