ACCC green-lights APN Outdoor-JCDecaux, oOh!media-Adshel mergers

In what is easily the biggest development in the Australian market, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has given the go-ahead for the separate mergers of APN Outdoor and JC Decaux as well as oOh!media and Adshel.

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims was quoted by Mumbrella saing the transactions between all business operate predominantly in “complementary segments”. “This is very different to the proposed tie-up in early 2017 between oOh!media and APN Outdoor, where the companies were in direct competition with each other,” he said.

“The merged companies will continue to compete with each other and with other out-of-home advertising providers. We consider that the options for advertisers and site owners will not change significantly and so neither of the proposed deals is likely to substantially less competition,” he said.