Ooh Media grows revenues by 18% and tells market profits remain on target
Out-of-home advertising company Ooh Media has reported an 18% growth in revenue and a 33% growth in profit in its half-yearly update to the market.
The company told the ASX that revenue for the first half of 2016 had risen from $124.1m to $146.6m. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) profits rose from $20.2m to $26.8m.
Unlike rival company APN Outdoor’s update to the market yesterday, Ooh Media said that it was reaffirming its guidance on the profit it would make for the full year. After yesterday’s slight reduction in its profit prediction, APN’s share price plummeted by a third.
Ooh said it expected to deliver a full-year profit of $68m-$72m, but it also warned that it would be spending $35m rather than the previously stated $25m on developing its digital billboards.
At close of trading last night, APN had a market capitalisation of $888m and Ooh Media $706m. In early trading today, Ooh shares rose by 5%.
Thanks to acquisitions including Junkee Media, Cactus Imaging and Inlink, Ooh’s net debt rose from $86.3m to $108.1m. It can call on debt facilities up to $190m.
Ooh Media boss Brendon Cook told Mumbrella that the company’s investment in digital billboards was beginning to pay off. He said: “There’s still a big piece of education to be done at the agency side and at client side over the next 18 months. But the point is that we can now do these things at scale, at campaign level, not just as stunts.”
Asked =whether the company’s market capitalisation could hit the magic billion dollar point in the coming financial year, Cook said: “There’s no question we have the ability to be a billion dollar company.”
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