APN Outdoor and oOh!media (ASX:OML) have presented a joint release to the Australian Securities Exchange [1] (ASX) and their shareholders announcing their desire to merge. Both entities made it clear that all of the directors of each company are unanimously in support of the merger and recommend shareholders that they vote in favour of the move.
APN Outdoor and oOH!media are two of Australia’s largest outdoor media companies and it’s interesting to note that a combined out-of-home media group would have a pro forma market capitalisation of approximately AUS $1.6 billion.
The transaction is expected to completed around April 2017 and on completion, existing APN Outdoor and oOh!media shareholders would own 55% and 45% respectively of the newly merged entity (oOh!media shareholders effectively receive 0.83 APN Outdoor shares for each oOh!media share held).
We understand that Ooh! Media CEO Brendan Cook will be managing director of the merged group and APN Outdoor chairman Doug Flynn will head up the enlarged group’s board.
oOh!media only announced its fourth acquisition within the past 12 months [2] 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 in October.
APN Outdoor Group raised AUS $329m from its initial public offering when it listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) back in November 2014 [3].
UBS and Cadence Advisory served as APN Outdoor’s advisers on the deal, whilst oOh!media was advised by Highbury Partnership and Macquarie Capital.