It appears oOh!media’s impending acquisition of rival Adshel and its positive half-year results weren’t enough for WPP to continue investing in the outdoor media company.
WPP has decided to offload its stake of more than five per cent in oOh!media to investment bank Goldman Sachs for $66 million.
An oOh!media spokesperson told B&T: “WPP, through Cavendish Square Holdings, has been a long-term shareholder of oOh!media and a big supporter of our strategy that is seeing us evolve from an old medium to a new media.
“We were not surprised by their decision given the company has been upfront about exiting non-core investments in recent times in order to refocus on the business, including the sale of its investment in digital platform AppNexus, and it did not take up its rights for more shares in the recent raising.
“We look forward to welcoming new shareholders to our books as we continue to execute on our business strategy.”
WPP declined to comment when contacted by B&T.
The move by WPP comes after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission cleared oOh!media’s proposed acquisition of Adshel for $570 million just last week. Furthermore, oOh!media posted positive profit and revenue results for the first half of 2018.