Brendon Cook, who recently announced his depature from oOh!media after 30 years, has agreed to stay on as CEO to help the outdoor media specialist through the fallout from the pandemic.
The company, facing a depressed advertising market, has announced a series of measures to keep the business in the game, and prepared for the subsequent market upswing.
Among them is a $167 million equity raising to "improve the company’s financial flexibility and liquidity" in uncertain times, a cut to capital expenditure and cost savings of between $20 million and $30 million.
Cash raised will be used to pay down debt. Net debt was $354.5 million at the end of December 2019.
“With this national crisis disrupting companies in every sector of the economy, it’s really not the time to be changing CEO," Cook told AdNews.
"Our focus has to be on adapting quickly, while looking after our staff and all our other stakeholders during what is a very difficult period for everyone.
"We want to avoid any more disruption for the company, so I will stay in the role until at least the end of the year to help us get through all this in the best possible shape.
"This approach should also make it easier for my eventual successor, as it would be unfair to ask someone else to take over at a time like this.”
Cook is arguably one of the best executives in the world in the out of home advertising business.
Before the coronavirus hit, sending people into their homes and away from billboards, the company was rated highly as an investment to get exposure to outdoor advertising.
And analysts still see a lot of upside in the outdoor advertising sector and in oOh!media itself.
Out-of-home (OOH) is around 6% of the advertising pie in Australia and OOH audience growth has outpaced population growth since 2011.
oOh!media earnings this year have been tracking to plan but the company, like many ASX-listed entities facing fallout from the coronavirus, withdrew its full year guidance of $140 million to $155 million.
The company's full year revenue to December was up 1% to $649.6 million but underlying net profit after tax was down 23% to $37.9 million.
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