Ad slowdown drags on JCDecaux revenue forecast

Daniel Farey-Jones, brandrepublic.com, Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 11:00am,

LONDON - Outdoor advertising group JCDecaux expects to be affected by the slowing ad market in Europe, and has lowered its forecast for 2005 organic revenue growth from 4% to between 3.5% and 4%.

Jean-Francois Decaux, chairman and joint CEO, said: "In the third quarter of 2005, revenues reflected a deceleration in several European markets and economies, affecting primarily our billboard division."

The company saw a 5.2% year-on-year rise in third-quarter revenues to €393.9m (£267.5m), with organic growth of 1.3%.

The slowdown in Europe and its billboard division, where sales were down by 6.4%, was countered by double-digit growth in Scandinavia, the US and Asia Pacific.

The transport division also performed well, with sales growth of 23.9%, boosted by recently acquired Asian outdoor advertising group Media Nation, and organic sales growth of 10.2%.

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This article was first published on brandrepublic.com