Ocean Outdoor acquires Scotland’s Forrest Media

Ocean Outdoor has acquired Forrest Media, a leading provider of large format outdoor media solutions in Scotland. The deal expands Ocean’s national footprint and enhances its position as a leading large format DOOH operator in the UK, with an offering which will now include Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh and the economic centre of Glasgow. Forrest Media is recognised as the market leader in Scotland and the North of England for premium DOOH, backed by its strong portfolio of locations throughout Edinburgh, Glasgow and greater Scotland as well as Manchester and Newcastle.

Incorporating Ocean’s presence in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bristol and Nottingham with Forrest Media’s presence in Glasgow and Edinburgh gives Ocean a market leading position across the UK, underpinning Ocean’s strategic vision and plan of “Digital Cities for Digital Citizens™”.

The acquisition further builds upon Ocean’s strategy to create a scale out-of-home media company through consolidation, complementing Ocean’s strong digital organic growth initiatives, as detailed at the time of Ocelot Partners’ (the vehicle founded by LionTree and Andrew Barron) acquisition of Ocean in March.

“Forrest are the champions of Out of Home in Scotland and it’s a business we have long admired. This is a hugely exciting time for both companies and the sector. We are combining Scotland’s most iconic assets with Ocean’s unique technology and award winning brand.” said Ocean CEO Tim Bleakley.

Chris Trainer said: “Ocean are a fantastic market leading business and the combination today with Forrest Media now delivers a truly national ‘footprint’, which we believe will have very significant benefits in our industry, with great opportunities for the whole team.”

The Forrest Media management team will continue under the day-to-day leadership of managing director Marc Keenan. Chris Trainer, the Founder of Forrest Group, becomes Chairman of the Scottish business, Ocean Scotland. Ocean has also entered into new long-term lease agreements with other Forrest Group entities for sites owned by such entities.

Trading in Ocean’s ordinary shares remains suspended. Ocean intends to seek re-admission of its ordinary shares (subject to meeting relevant eligibility criteria) to a standard listing on the Official List and trading on the London Stock Exchange as soon as practicable.