The Brief:
I Squared Capital beat out three rivals to land oOh!Media for $1.70 a share, a 100% premium and roughly $1.04bn enterprise value.
Mallesons acted for oOh!Media and White & Case for I Squared.
Three and a half months ago, oOh!Media was trading at 85 cents a share.
Today, it’s being bought out at $1.70.
The outdoor advertising giant just wrapped up one of the year’s most competitive private equity auctions, with four global bidders circling before I Squared Capital came out on top.
The deal
I Squared Capital will acquire oOh!Media by way of scheme of arrangement, paying $1.70 cash per share.
That values the company at an equity value of around $898m and an enterprise value of about $1.04bn — a 100% premium to oOh!Media’s undisturbed price before the bidding war kicked off.
oOh!Media runs more than 30,000 digital and static advertising assets across Australia and New Zealand, from roadside billboards to rail stations and shopping centres.
The board backed the offer unanimously, with no financing or due diligence conditions attached. Completion is expected in Q4 2026, subject to shareholder, court and regulatory approvals.
The backdrop
Pacific Equity Partners put oOh!Media in play on 29 April, tabling $1.40 a share.
That kicked off a scramble. I Squared Capital, Oaktree Capital Management and Bain Capital all piled in, though Bain walked away in June.
I Squared led the pack from the start. It opened at $1.45 on 11 May, with the field creeping up to the $1.60-$1.65 range through July once due diligence access opened, before I Squared pushed to $1.70 over the final weekend to get it done.
Two things drove the interest. Nine Entertainment’s $850m purchase of rival QMS Media got dealmakers thinking hard about what outdoor advertising assets were worth. And oOh!Media’s own share price had been under pressure after losing the Auckland Transport contract, worth roughly 4% of FY24 revenue.
Outdoor ads are an unusual hunting ground for I Squared, which typically chases power, utilities, transport and data centre assets. But I Squared’s dealmakers were reportedly won over by oOh!Media’s infrastructure-like financial profile, valuing it as a business with predictable earnings rather than comparing it to media companies in structural decline.
Who’s acting
Mallesons advised oOh!Media, led by M&A partners David Eliakim and Mark Vanderneut, alongside senior associates Jacob Carmody and Marc McCaughey.
White & Case advised I Squared Capital, with the Sydney team led by partners Aaron Kenavan and Caroline Sherrell, and including partners Will Stawell and Stefanie Benson, and associates Javed Ali, Max Drummond, Edward Lee, Alistair Leung and Matthew Weetman.
Both firms have a history here. Mallesons advised oOh!Media on its $167m entitlement offer back in 2020, while White & Case has advised I Squared Capital on its growth investment in US energy platform RPower.
Source: Mallesons, White & Case, AFR, Bloomberg