French-based outdoor advertising group, JC Decaux, has won the bidding battle for Havas Media-Communication-Outdoor Advertising, the outdoor arm of Havas, the publishing and multimedia company owned by communications conglomerate, Vivendi. Decaux is set to pay €992 million or around £650 million for HMC Outdoor Advertising and claims that the merged operation will be the largest outdoor advertising group in the world.
The HMC Outdoor Advertising Group incorporates Avenir, Mills & Allen, Sky Sites, AP Systčmes, RCI and Pearl & Dean. Avenir is Europe’s largest billboard advertising group and Mills & Allen, its UK subsidiary, is one of the UK’s leading billboard advertising companies with over 11,000 48-sheet and 850 960-sheet panels. Sky Sites, AP Systčmes, RCI and Pearl & Dean sell many of the world’s airport advertising sites.
Vivendi is understood to have shortlisted five offers for the business, including Outdoor Systems International, TDI, Clear Channel and Texas Pacific, the US venture capital group. The acquisition gives Decaux over 350,000 advertising structures in 31 countries.
Chief executive Jean-François Decaux said: “Mills & Allen and Sky Sites are complementary to our existing business and will allow us to catch hundreds of millions of people, whether it be in the street, the tube, airports or shopping centres.
“I personally believe in the increasing importance of outdoor advertising as a medium, at a time when the fragmentation of TV channels, coupled with the communications revolution of the internet, is dramatically increasing the competition for the limited home-based leisure time of the consumer.”
JC Decaux: 0181 746 1000
