Russ Curry, Ministry of New Media
JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide, announced this week its revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2021.
- Adjusted revenue for the first quarter 2021 decreased by -37.2% to €454.3 million compared to €723.6 million in the first quarter of 2020.
- Excluding the negative impact from foreign exchange variations and the negative impact from changes in perimeter, adjusted revenue decreased by -34.6%.
- Adjusted advertising revenue, excluding revenue related to sale, rental and maintenance of street furniture and advertising displays, decreased by -37.2% on an organic basis in the first quarter of 2021.
STREET FURNITURE
First quarter adjusted revenue decreased by -31.3% to €223.8 million (-30.8% on an organic basis). Europe (including France and UK), Asia Pacific, the Rest of the World and North America were down double digit, still affected by mobility restrictions. UK and North America were the most affected regions. Most of the regions suffered from tougher stay-at-home requirements compared to Q1 2020 and Q4 2020, mainly in UK and the Rest of Europe.
First quarter adjusted advertising revenue, excluding revenue related to sale, rental and maintenance of street furniture was down -34.2% on an organic basis compared to the first quarter of 2020.
TRANSPORT
First quarter adjusted revenue decreased by -46.2% to €151.6 million (-42.7% on an organic basis), reflecting a significant decline in both airport passenger traffic and, to a lesser extent, public transport commuting due to the Covid 19 outbreak. Europe (including France and UK) posted double-digit decline, compared to Q1 2020 which was not fully affected by the Covid-19 pandemic at that time. Asia-Pacific was down but saw a significant double-digit increase in Mainland China driven by domestic audiences which were almost back to pre-Covid level. North America was down affected as well by the non-renewal of the New York airports contract. The Rest of the World was down, still impacted by global travel restrictions.
BILLBOARD
First quarter adjusted revenue decreased by -32.1% to €78.9 million (-25.7% on an organic basis). Europe (including France and UK), the Rest of the World, North America were down double digit while Asia-Pacific showed sequential improvement with a revenue decline around mid-single digit.
Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said “Our Q1 2021 organic revenue decline at -34.6% was better than expected thanks to a double-digit growth in Mainland China but remained still highly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Street Furniture and Billboard suffered from continuing mobility restrictions across the globe, while Transport remained meaningfully impacted by a virtually non-existent international air traffic and a much lower level of commuters than pre-pandemic in public transport. Our digital revenue represents 21.5% of Group revenue by the end of March 2021.
Street Furniture and Billboard were impacted by stronger stay-at-home requirements than in Q1 2020 introduced in some large countries, such as US, UK and Germany which entered into lockdown only at the end of March 2020. In Transport, notwithstanding the non-renewal of the New York airports contract, North America and UK were the most affected regions over the period. As expected, Mainland China saw a double digit rebound thanks to domestic advertising revenue with audiences almost back to pre-Covid level.
As far as Q2 2021 is concerned, and taking into account an historic organic revenue decline of -63.4% last year, we now expect an adjusted organic revenue growth above +60% driven as anticipated by a strong advertising rebound in street furniture and billboard. These two business segments start to benefit from a return of urban audiences to pre-Covid level thanks to the acceleration of the vaccination campaigns and the end of lockdowns in many geographies while transport remains affected by lower traffic numbers with the exception of domestic in Mainland China.
With an environment that will continue to be challenging and an inevitable uncertainty over the pace of the recovery, we remain highly focused on the health and safety of our teams, close relationship with clients and partners, strict cost control as well as cash preservation including but not limited to rents & fees reliefs, reduced capital investment and tight control over working capital requirement.
Finally, I would like to sincerely thank for the hard work, commitment and motivation of our talented teams across the world.
In a media landscape increasingly fragmented and more and more digital, out-of-home and digital out of home advertising reinforce its attractiveness. As the most digitised global OOH company with our new data-led audience targeting and programmatic platform, our well diversified portfolio, our ability to win new contracts, the strength of our balance sheet and the high quality of our teams across the world, we believe we are well positioned to benefit from the rebound.”
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