ACCC kicks off reviews of Ooh Media’s acquisition of Adshel, and JC Decaux’s deal to buy APN Outdoor
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has kicked off reviews of deals for out of home company Ooh Media’s bid to buy street furniture specialist Adshel for $570m and for JC Decaux to buy APN Outdoor.
The Ooh Media – Adshel review will examine:
- How closely Ooh and Adshel compete with each other in both selling ad space and leasing out-of-home advertising sites;
- Whether the price of out-of-home ads would go up, or the rents paid to site owners might go down as a result of the deal;
- How easy it would be for the companies’ customers to switch to other suppliers after the proposed sale;
- How easy it would be for site owners to switch to other out-of-home companies after the deal.
Last year the ACCC effectively blocked Ooh’s merger with APN Outdoor after indicating that bringing the two biggest players in the outdoor market would decrease competition.
Earlier this week, the announcement of Ooh Media’s blockbuster bid for Adshel triggered a decision by APN Outdoor to sell to global out of home player JC Decaux for $1.1bn.
And the second review will consider exactly the same issues as they apply to JC Decaux and APN Outdoor customers and site holders.
The ACCC reviews will both be carried out by commission staffers John Rouw and Karina Geddes. A deadline of July 17 has been set for submissions, with the ACCC due to issues its findings on August 30.
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