oOh!media Upgrades Forecast on Strong First Half Results
oOh!media Limited (ASX: OML), this week upgraded its EBITDA forecast for the year ending 31 December 2015 on strong first half results.
oOh!’s Chief Executive Officer Brendon Cook told us “We have delivered a strong first half performance and made great progress executing against our strategy, particularly in rolling out our digital initiatives. This positions us well for long term growth while at the same time maintaining our audience reaching leadership position.
“Importantly, by concentrating not only on top-line revenue growth but also on portfolio contract management and greater leveraging of our assets, we have delivered stronger EBITDA and NPATA growth of 51% and 124% respectively.
“This has improved our EBITDA margin to 16.3% of sales in the first half, compared to 11.4% in the pcp.”
oOh!’s digital infrastructure rollout is on track and the successful execution of its digital strategy resulted in digital revenue growing to 29% of group revenue for the six months ended 30 June 2015. This places the company in a strong position to meet and exceed the 30% target set for the 2015 full year.
Financial Highlights include:
*Adjusted NPAT is defined as net profit after tax before amortisation and non-cash items such as impairments.
Mr Cook was quoted as saying “With our existing network of assets, we are driving innovation by making investments to digitise major sites such as Bourke Street in Melbourne that are at the highest end of revenue generation per site in the industry.
“Following from the success of our online products Hijacked.com.au and QView, we’re at the forefront of driving deeper consumer engagement through our recent launch of ShortPress, which targets small and medium businesses with our own content published online and via our Café and Fly digital assets.
“This delivers an integrated 360 degree online/offline offering to major clients wanting to reach what is a unique and valuable audience. This ensures our focus is on long term digital strategy, not just a digital site strategy which is a key difference in our approach.”
In the past six months, oOh!’s efforts on contract mix management has seen the rebalancing of its portfolio of contracts whilst also delivering a number of significant contract renewals, extensions of existing contracts and new contract wins to build a stronger sustainable margin.
Mr Cook added “oOh! is well positioned through our strong portfolio of both static and digital assets across Road, Fly, Retail and Place. We continue to be a leader in each of those operating environments.
“Our Roadside inventory, with 1000 metropolitan and 3000 regional sites, continued to perform strongly while Retail also continued to grow through innovation delivered in partnership with existing and new shopping centre groups.
“Our Fly division continued its solid growth performance due to our footprint at all major Australian airports and our Place based business, while still in its formative years, continued to deliver growth by providing advertisers ways to engage with targeted audiences.”
The business maintains a strong balance sheet liquidity position to fund future growth and acquisition opportunities.
Reflecting the strong first half performance, forward bookings and our current view of the market outlook, the company has upgraded its FY2015 EBITDA forecast to a range of $53-$55 million, up from Prospectus EBITDA forecast of $48.6 million.
The Board has declared an interim fully franked dividend of 2.8 cents per share. The dividend will be paid on 23 September 2015 with an ex-dividend date of 31 August 2015.
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