APN lifts buyout bid on rival
BILLBOARD company APN Outdoor has increased its buyout bid for rival Here, There & Everywhere’s Adshel advertising unit to $540 million.
The company announced it was making a higher offer yesterday, just a day after French advertising titan JCDecaux made a $1.1 billion bid for APN — conditional on the target group abandoning its attempt to buy Adshel.
APN has instead modified its offer from an initial $500 million to the $540 million cash-and-scrip deal.
The bid comprises $230 million in cash and 54.1 million APN shares.
In a statement, APN said the buyout of Adshel — which was the subject of a failed approach by Ooh!Media in April — would give it increased reach by combining its billboard and transport platforms with Adshel’s street furniture assets in Australia and New Zealand.
APN chief James Warburton said it would help support long-term, sustainable growth.
“There is an opportunity for us to use our expertise in largescale digital developments to support the rollout of digital across Adshel’s street furniture format, particularly in Australia,” Mr Warburton said.
“We expect this would enable us to bring digital to a broader range of advertisers and complement our existing product offering to those advertisers.”
Shares in the group had rallied 12.1 per cent to $6.56 — their highest level in almost two years — on Thursday following the announcement of JCDecaux’s bid.