Clear Channel Outdoor has announced it has closed the sale of its French business and has initiated the process to sell its Europe North businesses.
The US-based outdoor company also said in its statement to investors after market close yesterday that it would start a strategic review of its Latin American Businesses including Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Peru.
At the Clear Channel UK Upfronts earlier this morning, Justin Cochrane, Clear Channel UK and Europe CEO, said: “You may or may not have seen overnight that a press release went out that we just closed the sale of our French business. It’s been no secret for a long time that we are a US business and they want to be a US-only business. The international bits have been up for sale for a long time. Various disasters have struck which means that that hasn’t completed the sale of the whole business.”
Cochrane said that about a year ago Clear Channel made the choice to sell some parts of the business and “make it easier to sell the remaining whole”. So far the Swiss, Italian and French businesses have sold, and Spain is currently subject to competition regulation.
Cochrane added: “The other thing that the press release overnight says is we have now formally launched the process to sell Europe North, which is 12 markets we have including the UK. We’re going through a formal process for that starting now, which is an exciting time for the management team because we get to, hopefully, choose a really great owner for us as a business.”
In an interview earlier this year with The Media Leader, Cochrane said Clear Channel Outdoor wanted to be US-only business as it could offer a lot of tax breaks by becoming a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).
At the time, he added that his “mission” was to “find the right owner for the rest of the European business in the right time” and that the new owner would likely be “somebody that really buys into the media, wants to invest in it and buys into our plans.”
