oOh!media boss spruiks post-Easter lift in ad campaigns

Shares in oOh!media’s jumped after it noted a lift in demand for ad campaigns since Easter.

Brendon Cook, CEO of oOh!Media

oOh!media has reaffirmed its annual underlying earnings guidance, and flagged increased demand for advertising campaigns since Easter.

The media group (OML) expects to book a rise in underlying earnings of between $152-$162 million in 2019 from $112.5m last year.

The guidance was first issued in February, along with its 2018 financial results, which wasn’t well received by investors and led to a share sell-off. At the time, chief executive Brendon Cook defended the guidance, saying the benefits from its $570m acquisition of outdoor advertising group Adshel would take time to flow through.

Mr Cook will tell shareholders at its annual general meeting today that the guidance excludes “any integration costs incurred during 2019” and the impact from the compulsory change in accounting standards. It also takes into consideration the expected market softening in second quarter to the end of June.

Mr Cook said the preliminary Standard Media Index results released yesterday “indicated a double digit decline for Australian media revenues in April, following a 6.4 per cent decline” in the first quarter to the end of March.

“However, since Easter, oOh! has seen increased activity for post election campaigns across multiple oOh! formats,” Mr Cook will tell shareholders, according to his speech, which has been lodged with the ASX.

oOh!media is also targeting underlying growth in 2019 operational expenditure of “no more than a 5-7 per cent range”, he added.

The group also forecast capital expenditure to come in between $55-$70m this year.

oOh!media also announced the appointment of former Vodafone executive Timothy Miles as an independent non-executive director.

Mr Cook said the appointment would strengthen its commitment to the New Zealand market, and plans to appoint another independent non-executive director shortly.

At 11.40am (AEST) shares in oOh!media had jumped 16 cents, or 4.5 pe cent to $3.72,