oOH!media’s gross underlying net profit fell 23 per cent in 2019, despite revenue increasing by one per cent.
Released on Monday, oOh!’s steady results for 2019 are positioned within an overall “tough year for media” – which saw the market fall by around five per cent.
“Following the difficult second and third quarters, we delivered a stronger performance and recovered share in the fourth quarter to deliver revenue growth in line with the OOH market and earnings within our guidance range.
oOh! estimated the OOH market grew by one per cent in Australia in 2019.
Cook, who is set to depart the company, explained Commute is now the largest division for oOh! after delivering on the target of $16m in run rate synergies for the year.
The success of Commute came as Road fell by five per cent, something the company attributes to the Federal election in May reducing big brand advertising.
Despite the challenging year, oOh! believes it is poised for success in the “medium to longer term”, on the back of investments in people, data and new systems, such as recently launched data science tool SMART Reach.
new accounting standard hits
The 2019 financial results were the first for oOh! to be in accordance with new Accounting Standard AASB16, which changes how the company’s reported statutory results.
Although the revenue was unaffected by the change, it did see net finance costs increased by $39.9 million and also lead to depreciation and amortization costs being “disproportionally” high for 2019.
Profit before tax, net profit after tax and net profit after tax and amortization were all adversely impact by AASB16 due to timings over the average lease life.
