Acquisitions in central europe
- Paris
JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC), - a world leader in outdoor advertising and the largest outdoor group in Europe, announced today that it has purchased, through its Austrian subsidiary, Gewista, the remaining minority interests in two outdoor advertising companies in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia. The companies manage billboard and transport advertising, including that for subway, tram and bus advertising in Prague. These interests were bought from Affichage Holding, in which JCDecaux has a 30% interest, and German outdoor advertising company DSM, at a price slightly above 5x the expected EBITDA for 2002. Acquiring these interests will give JCDecaux full control of the two companies and allow it to rationalise and improve the profitability of both.
JCDecaux, through Gewista, will continue to develop its outdoor advertising businesses in the Eastern European countries of Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, in partnership with Affichage Holding.
Commenting Jean-François Decaux, Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said: “The purchase of these minority interests is consistent with the Group’s acquisition strategy in Europe. We will be able to accelerate the growth and implement the synergies among the various companies that we recently acquired in Central Europe, where we see good opportunities for growth”.