Despite two major deals falling through for oOh!Media over the past year, the outdoor media giant is still very much on the acquisition trail.
Speaking at Macquarie Australia’s annual conference, oOh!Media CEO Brendon Cook said the company was at peace with Here, There & Everywhere’s rejection of oOh!’s bid for Adshel.
“It’s part of normal business life,” Cook said.
“We’ve always been an acquisitive company so we’ll talk to anyone that wants to talk to us.
“Adshel has a nice business and I don’t know what the shareholders or the board of HT& E are thinking so I can’t comment,” he added.
Here, There & Everywhere (HT&E) publicly rejected oOh!Media’s offer in a statement shared on the site in early April.
In it, HT&E confirmed it had received a confidential, non-binding indicative offer from oOh!media for Adshel, however, had decided to pass.
“The HT&E board has assessed the offer and determined it does not adequately reflect the value of Adshel to HT&E shareholders,” the statement said.
While many thought oOh! would bid again, Cook told investors on Thursday, “We are not engaging.”
Adding, “We’ve always looked at out-of-home products … as to where will they add to what we are already doing.
“We don’t play in the street furniture market currently so for us it would be a good add-on to what we are doing in many other segments.”
The comments come roughly a year after a merger between outdoor’s biggest players, oOh!Media and APN Outdoor was scrapped after concerns from the ACCC.
At the time, the ACCC cited the joint company’s monopolisation of the market as a huge concern for the merger.
Cook also touched on the ongoing Royal Commission into Australian banking, calling it “very good” for outdoor.
“The current royal commission has been very good for us,” he said.
“Out-of-home [advertising] in general will continue to grow. It is still early in the year and we are very happy with where it is going.”
