French out-of-home giant JCDecaux dismissed reports that it’s close to signing a $300 million outdoor advertising deal with the City of Sydney - one of the most lucrative outdoor contracts in Australia.
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| JCDecaux in Sydney |
According to an article published last week in The Australian Financial Review, Paris-based JCDecaux had partnered with Telstra in its bid for the “hotly contested” City of Sydney contract and, “while the tender process remains open, sources said the JCDecaux-Telstra bid was in front and seen as the likely winner.”
All this came as news, apparently, to the Paris-based outdoor company, which has been forced to issue a clarification to investors this week in which it denied even submitting a bid for the Sydney contract.
JCDecaux S.A. (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, took notice of the press article posted on the Australian Financial Review website on January 10th, 2019 – and relayed by some financial analyst's notes – reporting that “JCDecaux is believed to be the front runner to lock down the City of Sydney contract (…).”.
JCDecaux is surprised by this information and other related information which is inaccurate since JCDecaux has made the decision not to submit any bid proposal under the current tender terms.
The statement did not make it clear whether APN Outdoor, acquired last year by JCDecaux, would be going ahead with its pre-takeover bid for the contract. Competitor oOh!media is now said to be the front-runner for the Sydney job.
In October 2018, JCDecaux bought APN Outdoor in a $1.2 billion takeover deal.
