oOh!media (ASX:OML) today announced its fourth acquisition within the past 12 months with the AUD 68.5 million purchase of Executive Channel International’s Australia business (ECN) national network of digital screens in office towers and classic advertising displays in carparks.
oOh! Chief Executive Brendon Cook told us that the acquisition provides advertisers new opportunities to engage with the hard-to-reach audiences in CBD office lobbies, lifts and carparks in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and the Gold Coast – “It allows for deeper 360-degree engagement between brands and their audiences through innovative advertising solutions that ensure advertisers are getting the right message to the right person at the right time.”
Brendon Cook said oOh! identified CBD office towers as a potential growth sector because of their audience of business executives and high discretionary-spending Millennials. oOh!’s 2015 purchase of Inlink [1], its first acquisition in a strategy to grow audience reach in the CBD office towers, continues to perform above expectations.
The acquisition of ECN not only strengthens oOh!’s position as a leading provider of solutions for advertisers to engage with premium CBD audiences but also will bring revenue synergies with other oOh! products across the whole portfolio.
oOh! is currently in a trading halt. It is undertaking a fully underwritten placement for eligible institutional investors, of approximately 12.6 million fully paid ordinary shares to raise approximately $60 million and has also opened up an optional share placement plan for eligible oOh! shareholders in Australia and New Zealand to subscribe for up to $15,000 worth of oOh! shares per shareholder.
It would seem that the acquisition secures for oOh! more than 1020 screens in 280 buildings (premium office towers and carparks), almost doubles oOh!’s presence in the highly-desirable, high-dwell CBD environment to 630 office towers AND expands oOh!’s network of digital Out Of Home screens to 6500 across road, retail, fly, office towers, cafes, venues, gyms and sports environments.
Surely it consolidates oOh!’s position as the largest provider of Out Of Home advertising in Australia?