APN Outdoor’s full year result for 2016 sees its revenue up 10 per cent at $330.9m, above its target of 8.5 per cent to 9 per cent.
Its digital revenue rose by 50 per cent to a third of the total revenue for 2016 with 34 per cent of the total revenue, compared to 23 per cent in the year prior.
The company says the growth in digital will continue, and part of it will be at the expense of print, which will see a declining revenue.
Richard Herring, CEO, APN Outdoor says, “The ongoing shift to digital will drive revenue growth. The conversion of APN Outdoor’s Classic sites to large format Elite digital screen is attracting greater revenue. However this growth in revenue will be partially offset by the resultant reduction in Classic format revenue and associated production and installation services.”
Its statutory NPAT is up 18 per cent to $48.4m, underlying EBITDA up 18 per cent to $86.7m above the guidance range of $84-$86m and the underlying NPATA is up 20 per cent to $51.8m.
During 2016, the company installed 35 new large format digital Elite screens, 32 of them were installed during the second half. APN Outdoor successfully integrated acquisitions of iOM and Metrospace, and announced transformational merger with oOh! Media to create a leading out of home and online media group, expected in May 2017.
Herring says, “The strong growth in the business over the past 12 months was due to the continued roll out of digital screens within APN Outdoor’s Australian and New Zealand footprints. Digital screen revenues now represent one third of group revenues, and will continue to grow in line with the company’s focused growth strategy.”
[Related: oOh! Media to merge with APN Outdoor]
Herring says he is pleased with the performance of APN Outdoor over the past year, “The company has today announced another record result that was above the most recent guidance provided to the market. Statutory net profit was up 18 per cent to $48.4m, and importantly operating cash flow was up 19 per cent to $66.3m.
“Revenue was up 10 per cent to $330.9m, surpassing the most recent guidance given to the market of revenue growth in the range of 8.5 per cent to 9 per cent for the year. This result was achieved despite a slowdown in bookings earlier in the second half. A targeted improvement to sales performance and execution later in the half enabled a positive return to bookings momentum and resulted in the achievement of this record result.”
Herring says having delivered strong growth over 2016, APN Outdoor is well positioned to continue to grow in 2017.
“We are accelerating the company’s capital investment in new digital screens. As part of this, we are rolling out new smaller elite digital screens in both metropolitan and regional locations further grow APN Outdoor’s digital asset portfolio,” he says.
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