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Ooh Media reports net profit loss of $27.5m, says OOH was ‘impacted disproportionately by the COVID-19 restrictions’

Ooh Media has reported a net profit after tax (NPAT) loss of $27.5m for the half year to June 30 and an underlying net profit after tax and amortization (NPATA) loss of $16.9m, down from an $18.2m profit over the same period last year.

Revenue fell 33% to $205.0m for the period and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) dropped to $10.8m from $56.0m.

Ooh Media’s P&L for H1 2020 [click to enlarge]

Brendon Cook, CEO of Ooh Media, said the business had been hard hit by COVID-19, but had reacted quickly to the pandemic and its impact on outdoor.

“Although we are seeing national audiences starting to bounce back, out of home has been impacted disproportionately by the COVID-19 restrictions in people movement compared to other sectors, resulting in the market declining by 36% in Australian and 41% in New Zealand,” he said.

“In response, our immediate focus was to strengthen our balance sheet, reduce our fixed cost base and optimise our organisational structure to address these challenges head on.”

In April, Ooh Media held an equity raising round which improved its gearing, alongside $17m in fixed rent savings into the second quarter. Operational expenditure for the business was reduced by $12m while capex dropped by $19m. It received Jobkeeper benefits of $7m.

Ooh paid a non-cash impairment of $1.9m against Junkee.

The business has made a number of redundancies since the beginning of COVID-19 and restructured to bring Junkee under its marketing and content arm. 

For the rest of 2020, Ooh reports August is pacing at 60% of August 2019, compared to May which paced at 25% of the previous year. But the company warned the future is ‘uncertain and difficult to forecast’ and therefore will not be providing earnings guidance.

Ooh Media revenue across its business [click to enlarge]

“As we have seen in New Zealand, audience growth has recovered strongly which has led to a 36% increase in our revenue in July from June, although the latest lockdown may affect the current quarter,” said Cook.

He went on to say audiences across Australia are also improving nationally, although some areas remain challenged.

“Combined roadside and retail audience volumes in regional areas have recovered to 93% of their level compared to the same week last year, having dipped as low as 57% in mid-April.”

Ooh increased its bank covenant to 4.0x with cash liquidity of $125m and has $232m available to be drawn. It decreased its debt to $115.2m, a $239.3m reduction from December.

Ooh Media has suspended dividends and will review this decision down the track.

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