Published: Monday, 02 February 2015 00:00
Published: Monday, 02 February 2015 00:00
Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH) today announced a strategic partnership with JCDecaux SA (JCDecaux) to acquire Continental Outdoor Media (Continental), the leader in outdoor advertising in Africa. As part of the partnership, RBH will acquire a 30% stake in Continental while JCDecaux will acquire the remaining 70%.
RBH is a community owned investment company with a portfolio net asset value of R32 billion. JCDecaux is the number one outdoor advertising company worldwide.
The deal will see both RBH and JCDecaux actively participating in Continental’s further expansion into the rest of Africa. The acquisition is in line with RBH’s diversification strategy, with the aim to increase exposure to secular growth industries.
“We are very pleased to see this partnership with JCDecaux come to fruition. As a long-term investor, we believe in partnering with aligned strategic investors to invest in companies that are run by strong management teams. The investment in Continental is in line with the investment objective. Continental is a leader in outdoor advertising in Africa and their footprint spreads across fourteen countries in the continent. This deal therefore reflects our long-term investment approach and our commitment to the African market.” said Brett Nagle – RBH’s Head of Investment.
Continental is involved primarily in large format billboard advertising but also in transport advertising as well as street furniture. It markets 35,000 advertising faces in the fourteen African countries.
The agreement was officially signed at the end of 2014 and is subject to the fulfilment of standard conditions precedent.
About Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH)
RBH is a community based investment company and is the primary investment vehicle of the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN), a community of approximately 150 000 Setswana-speaking people with substantial minerals-rich land holdings in South Africa’s North West Province.
The Royal Bafokeng Development Trust is the sole shareholder of RBH, whose investment activities are aimed at generating the income required for the funding of sustainable projects that will benefit the Bafokeng community.
RBH has assets spread across the mining, financial services, infrastructure, oil and gas services, and industrial sectors. As at 31 December 2014, RBH net asset value was R32bn.
About JCDecaux
JCDecaux is the No.1 outdoor advertising company worldwide and, more particularly, the No.1 player in Europe, in the Asia-Pacific region and in Latin America. JCDecaux is listed on Euronext Paris and is part of the Euronext 100 index.
JCDecaux, which first invented the concept of street furniture in 1964, is currently the only world-class player exclusively focused on outdoor advertising, pursuing a comprehensive range of activities in the areas of street furniture, transport advertising and billboard.
JCDecaux is No.1 worldwide in street furniture, No.1 worldwide in transport advertising with advertising concessions in more than 145 airports and in more than 276 metros, buses, trains and tramways, No.1 in Europe for billboard advertising and No.1 worldwide for self-service bicycle hire. With a total of 11,900 employees, the Group has operations in more than 60 countries around the world and is present in 3,700 cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants. In 2014, the Group has generated revenues worth a total of €2,813 million.
For further information:
Siza Majola
Royal Bafokeng Holdings
Senior Manager: Stakeholder relations
+27 81 473 6852
siza@bafokengholdings.com