Hefty profits

 
Out-of-home advertising JCDecaux and Clear Channel generated a total turnover of around 11 billion Swiss francs in 2007 Clear Channel Communications (CCC), the world's largest out-of-home advertising company, reported a net profit of 938.5 million US dollars for 2007, almost a third more than in the previous year. Total sales increased by 6 percent to 6.82 billion dollars. CCC does not publish figures for individual countries. Beat Roeschlin, CEO of the Swiss subsidiary Clear Channel Outdoor Plakanda CCOP, said he was "very satisfied" with 2007. Sales growth of between 5 and 10 percent was achieved in all segments. CCOP also established itself "as the clear number 1 in the Swiss market" in the areas of petrol station advertising and POS. Roeschlin was also given responsibility for the Clear Channel airport business outside America in 2007. He has already concluded marketing contracts with two new airports - Oslo and Budapest, he reports. Affichage was also interested in the latter.
It is still unclear what will happen to the entire CCC Group. Last fall, the shareholders approved a sale to the investment companies Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners. However, they have not yet completed the deal and are considering pulling out. This would mean accepting a fine of 500 million dollars. They still have one month to make their decision. If the deal goes ahead as planned, CCC will probably be split up.
One company is keeping a close eye on this: JCDecaux, the world's second-largest out-of-home advertiser. It increased its sales in the 2007 financial year by 8.2 percent to 2.1 billion euros. The Group's organic sales growth was in the high single-digit or double-digit range in almost all geographical regions. JCDecaux, which holds a 30 percent stake in Affichage, does not publish any profit figures.
Markus Knöpfli