The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced today that it has cleared two proposed acquisitions in the out-of-home advertising sector: the acquisition of APN Outdoor Group Limited by JCDecaux SA and the proposed acquisition of Adshel Street Furniture Pty Ltd by oOh!media Limited.
All four companies provide outdoor advertising, however there were crucial differences between the type of outdoor advertising. Frontier Economics (Asia-Pacific) was retained by lawyers for JCDecaux to provide economic advice. The operations of JCDecaux were essentially restricted to small format street furniture, a segment in which APN Outdoor had no presence. As a consequence, there had been limited competition between the two parties, both in the supply of outdoor advertising and the acquisition of sites. Similarly, Adshel and oOh!media operated in complementary segments. The absence of competition between the merging parties led the ACCC to conclude that “neither of the proposed deals is likely to substantially lessen competition”.
Frontier Economics regularly undertakes empirical analysis for clients in competition matters.
