APN Outdoor shareholders approve JC Decaux deal
APN Outdoor shareholders have resoundingly approved the $1.2bn offer by French out-of-home giant JC Decaux to acquire the business.
Overall, 99.3% of the votes cast by shareholders were in favour of the proposal, which will see APN Outdoor absorbed into the French company.
The bid, announced in June, saw JC Decaux offer $6.70 per share for the company. In August the ACCC approved the takeover, followed by the Foreign Investment Review Board the following month.
APN Outdoor’s board had supported the acquisition in the absence of a superior proposal, with the company announcing prior to the vote that stockholders with 85 million shares had cast their proxy vote in favour of the proposal.
JC Decaux’s offer is part of a rationalisation of the Australian out-of-home industry after rival Ooh Media successfully bid $570m for Adshel earlier in June.
The mergers come as the City of Sydney tender, Australia’s largest out of home contract, enters the shortlist stage of its tender negotiations. Both JC Decaux and APN Outdoor are on that shortlist.
In July, the City of Sydney extended JC Decaux’s contract for another year due to the delay of the tender.
The Australian out-of-home industry has been going through a run of success in recent times, with APN Outdoor reporting a 13% profit growth on a 4% increase in revenues for the first half of the financial year while Ooh Media saw profits growing 2% and revenues increasing 11%.
With the approval, the only barrier remaining for the takeover to go ahead will be a federal court approval expected to be applied on 18 October. APN Outdoor shares will cease trading on the same day.
