Paris – 8 March 2007 - JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company in Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region and number two worldwide, has announced that it is strengthening its partnership with the Group Wall AG, in which it holds a 35% interest. In 2006, Wall produced gross sales of 134.5 M € from 30,000 illuminated advertising panels on high quality street furniture in 60 cities.
As part of this process, JCDecaux undertakes to transfer 100% of its German subsidiaries VVR-Decaux (Berlin) and Georg Zacharias (Düsseldorf) to Wall AG. In exchange, Wall AG undertakes to transfer 100% of its Netherlands subsidiary (Wall Nederland), 10% of its American subsidiary (Wall USA, already held 50% by JCDecaux) and 100% of its Russian subsidiary (Wall Russia) to JCDecaux.
These transfers will allow JCDecaux to add to its networks and expand its offer for advertisers in three key markets.
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Wall Nederland is the third largest outdoor communication operator in the Netherlands and manages street furniture contracts in the country’s main cities, notably in Amsterdam. This asset will strengthen JCDecaux’s position as leader in street furniture in the Netherlands.
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Wall USA, currently held 50% by JCDecaux, operates street furniture contracts in Boston and Saint Louis in the United States. By increasing their holding in this company, JCDecaux will gain exclusive control allowing synergies with its other street furniture contracts in the United States, notably in San Francisco and Chicago.
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Wall Russia manages street furniture contracts for Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Its assets are highly complementary to those of BigBoard (held 40% by JCDecaux) which will enable the Group to continue to develop in the Russia market, where outdoor advertising represents 18% of the total advertising market.
- Additionally, this new agreement brings an end to Wall’s option to buy back the 35% JCDecaux holding in Wall AG.
- Finally, a new 50/50 company will be created where both JCDecaux and Wall will bring their entire advertising portfolio to set up a unique national sales platform combining the high quality advertising locations in the main cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Dresden and Düsseldorf. This company requires the approval of the German competition authority.
Following this agreement, Jean-François Decaux, Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said: “I have been convinced of the benefits of a partnership between our two companies for a long time and I look forward to taking it to a new level. Both the assets swaps as well as the joint company for sales and marketing in Germany will create a lot of added value for both our clients and our share-holders”