The world’s largest outdoor media advertiser says that after a 6.7% rise in global revenue for third quarter 2019, its Australian operation is being ‘negatively impacted’ by a major slump in the Australian economy. But the company adds that the integration of its $1.2 billion 2018 acquisition APN Outdoor has provided a major boost to its global digital billboard business. Meanwhile, competitor oOh!media has upgraded its earnings guidance.
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| Photo JCDecaux Australia |
“As far as Q4 2019 is concerned, there is no real change in current trading compared to Q3 2019 except for Hong Kong in China, where we see some further deterioration, and Australia, where the overall media market is negatively impacted by the major slowdown in the economy,” says Jean-François Decaux, chairman and Co-CEO of Paris-based JCDecaux Group, in a Q3 2019 trading update.
“As a result, and bearing in mind the solid Q4 2018, we expect our adjusted organic revenue growth rate to be negative around -2% leading to a full year organic revenue growth rate above +1.5%.”
The company’s third quarter 2019 adjusted revenue was up 6.7% to €925.8m.
“Street Furniture’s organic revenue growth of +5.2% was mainly driven by a +24.5% digital revenue increase resulting from the on-going digitisation of our prime inventory in more and more cities around the world,” says Decaux. “Transport’s organic revenue decline of -4.2% which takes into account the non-renewal of our national Spanish airport franchise was mainly due to difficult market conditions in Hong Kong as well as in our Chinese advertising metro business, while our Chinese airport advertising division continues to grow with Group digital Transport revenue growing at +31.0%.
"Our organic revenue decline of -1.6% in our Billboard division reflects soft market conditions in certain geographies lacking consolidation, while our Group digital Billboard revenue up +141.1%, benefited from the integration of APN Outdoor as well as from the rationalisation and digitisation of our UK traditional billboard network."
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Meanwhile. Australian outdoor leader oOh!media – owner of wide format print business Cactus Imaging - has upgraded its FY19 earnings guidance on improved bookings in the fourth quarter.
In August 2019, oOh! announced FY19 earnings guidance in the range of $125 million to $135 million. The company has now issued revised FY19 earnings guidance of between $138 million to $143 million, excluding integration costs and the impact from the change in accounting standards to AASB16.
“While the Company’s advertising bookings declined in the third quarter versus the prior year, improved bookings for September and the fourth quarter, which have paced positively over the prior year, have resulted in an upgrade,” the company told the ASX.
