CHAMP gets court approval for oOh!media takeover

oOh!media's board pledged its unanimous support for the CHAMP buyout in December of last year. The private equity firm already owned about 19% of the advertising company - bought in two tranches - and offered A$0.325 per share for the outstanding equity. This represented a 103% premium on the November 9 closing price, the day before the two parties entered into exclusive negotiations.

Investors also have the option of a mixed consideration of A$0.10 in cash and one share in Outdoor Media Investments - the acquisition vehicle controlled by CHAMP's third $1.5 billion buyout fund - for each oOh!media share.

CHAMP is paying around 8.1x EBITDA compared to the 7.7x multiple Quadrant Private Equity agreed for its A$272 million outdoor advertising joint venture with APN News & Media. oOh!media reported an EBITDA of A$21 million for 2011, down 0.5% year-on-year, while pre-tax profit climbed 10% to A$12.3 million. It was Australia's only listed specialist outdoor media company.

Following the two private equity transactions, Australia's outdoor advertising industry - said to be worth A$494 million - is tipped to see further consolidation as the leading operators implement regional expansion plans.

Darren Smorgon, a director at CHAMP, told The Wall Street Journal that oOh!media would initially focus on growing its core products, including metropolitan and regional big billboards, retail and experiental marketing, as well as investing in areas such as interactive technology. CHAMP, meanwhile, will consider acquisition and development opportunities, principally focused on the Asia Pacific region.

Macquarie Capital, Blake Dawson Waldron, Gilbert + Tobin advised oOh!media. Redbridge Grant Samuel, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Clayton Utz advised CHAMP.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Media
• Buyouts
• CHAMP Private Equity
• Quadrant Private Equity
• TMT
• Media
• buyout
• Joint Venture