...Let's get started then. Good morning, everyone. My name's Tony Faure. I'm the Chair of oOh!media Limited. It is now the scheduled time for the meeting, and I am advised that the necessary quorum is present. I therefore have the pleasure of declaring oOh!media's 2024 annual general meeting open. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we are meeting, and I pay my respects to elders, both past and present. I'd like to thank our shareholders in attendance, whether in person here at oOh!media's North Sydney office or listening to the audio of the meeting through the webcast. Today, I'm joined by my fellow directors, CEO and Managing Director Cathy O'Connor, and Non-executive Directors Philippa Kelly, Tim Miles, Jo Pollard, Andrew Stevens, and David Wiadrowski.
Also here today in person is Chris Roberts, our Chief Financial Officer and Joint Company Secretary, Melissa Jones, our Joint Company Secretary, and oOh!media's external auditor, KPMG, represented by Audit Partner Kiki Peterson. So we'll move. In my address today, I will provide an overview of our financial results for 2023, a brief discussion on dividends and capital management, and some comments on our strategy and board. I'll start with the calendar year 2023 results. oOh!media delivered solid revenue growth of 7% to AUD 633.9 million. Our adjusted EBITDA increased by 2% to AUD 130.2 million, reflecting increased revenue, partially offset by higher fixed rent and lower rental abatements compared to the prior year. Within this environment, we continued our disciplined approach to cost management and contract renewals.
Adjusted net profit after tax was AUD 55 million, compared to AUD 56.2 million for the prior year. On a statutory basis, Ooh reported a 10% increase in net profit of AUD 34.6 million for calendar year 2023. Cathy will provide further commentary on our financial results in her address. Capital management and dividend. Ooh's financial position remains strong, and we remain well-capitalized, which means we are able to continue to invest in key growth initiatives while delivering ongoing returns to shareholders. During 2023, we completed our on-market share buyback program, which contributed to adjusted earnings per share increasing by 6% to AUD 0.10 per share. Our policy remains to pay dividends of 40%-60% of adjusted net profit.
The board declared a final dividend of AUD 3.5 cents per share, fully franked, bringing the full year dividend to AUD 5.25 cents per share, fully franked. This was an increase of 17% on the prior year and represented a 51% payout ratio. Your board will continue to assess capital management options with a focus on striking an appropriate balance between maintaining the group's strong financial position and investing in growth initiatives with appropriate returns to shareholders. On strategic progress, we continue to make good progress executing our growth strategy. Our priority remains to leverage the unparalleled scale and diversity of our network to capitalize on the opportunities that the continued structural growth of out-of-home presents, in particular, the shift of advertising spend from free-to-air television to out-of-home.
We are focused on profitable market share and on diversifying into new adjacent revenue streams to deliver long-term sustainable earnings growth. A good example of this is our reo business, which launched in October 2023. reo is an innovative out-of-home solution designed specifically to partner with retailers to fast-track the growth of their retail media businesses by utilizing oOh's established sector experience in screen management and advertising sales to help generate incremental revenue and margin. This presents a new annual recurring revenue profile for oOh, with long-term service revenue contracts with major businesses in a rapidly growing and material category. We look forward to sharing progress on this exciting initiative in the near future. On board, there were no changes to our board during calendar year 2023.
Your board comprises seven directors, which we think is appropriate in terms of size, but more particularly, in relation to the mix of skills and experience each director brings to the board and to the company. I would like to acknowledge and thank my fellow directors for their support and contribution to the company over the year. In closing, I want to acknowledge and thank our people at oOh for their focus and dedication over the past year. The structural fundamentals driving out-of-home as a growth medium remain positive, and as the market leader, we remain well-placed to capitalize on this. In addition, we continue to develop new revenue opportunities to further enhance the diversity and scale of our network.
I wanna acknowledge and thank the people of oOh!media for their focus and dedication during the year, and I'd like to close by thanking shareholders for your continued support of the company. I'll now pass to Cathy for the CEO address.
Thanks, Tony. Good morning, and welcome, everyone, and thank you for attending today's AGM. For my CEO address today, I'll first present an overview of our financial results for calendar year 2023, and then discuss the key drivers of growth in out-of-home media and how we remain well-placed to harness this growth.... I'll conclude with an update on our trading performance for the first quarter and for the month of April. As Tony mentioned, we delivered a 7% increase in revenue on the prior year to AUD 633.9 million. Revenue increased across all our formats, with road once again being the standout, delivering 14% growth on the prior year. Adjusted gross margin was down 1.9 percentage points for the year.
This decline was driven primarily by an increase in fixed rents relating to the renewal of some larger contracts during late calendar year 2022, and a reduction in rent abatements. Despite the decline from the prior year, gross margin in calendar year 2023 was higher than any period from calendar year 2019 through to 2021. We remained disciplined on costs, with underlying OpEx increasing by only 1.8% in an inflationary environment. And as a result, our adjusted underlying EBITDA was up 2% on the prior year, with adjusted net profit per share up 6%. On a statutory basis, which is the numbers in the right-hand column there, the group reported a 10% increase in net profit to AUD 34.6 million. This slide calls out some of our financial highlights in more detail.
The chart on the left demonstrates that gross profit margins have improved from the low- to mid-40% range as the business continues to progress towards its pre-COVID-19 revenue base. The next chart demonstrates our disciplined focus on operating cost. OpEx growth in calendar year 2023 was 2.5%, which included an atypical increase in makegood expenses of AUD 2.5 million related to the loss of the Vicinity contract. As I mentioned earlier, underlying OpEx growth was just 1.8%, and over the past two years, OpEx grew at a compounded annual rate of 2.1%, despite the strong inflationary environment. The next chart demonstrates that the group has grown adjusted EBITDA in each of the past three years, although the growth rate in calendar year 2023 moderated as a result of the lower gross margin percentage I outlined earlier.
The strong free cash flow generated by the group, together with low gearing of below 0.6 times, has supported continued year-on-year dividend growth to shareholders. As Tony mentioned, the full-year dividend in calendar year 2023 increased by 17% on the prior year and was fully franked. For 2023, out-of-home continued its strong performance as a growth advertising medium and was the fastest-growing media segment according to Standard Media Index. SMI reported that out-of-home achieved agency media revenue growth of 15%, capturing 14.5% of advertising agency media spend for the year. This was up from 12.3% in the prior year and represented out-of-home's highest-ever level share of agency media spend. This growth compares to a broader decline for total advertising agency spend of 3%, with traditional media such as television declining 14% and radio declining 6%.
In the first quarter of 2024, out-of-home continues to grow agency media share against the same period last year, from 14.6% to 15.3%, as illustrated in the light blue columns. As the leading out-of-home company across Australia and New Zealand, our ambition is to leverage our unrivaled scale to lead out-of-home to this digital-first future. Our core focus remains on building our network of world-class digital assets, and in turn, bringing new and compelling mass-reach opportunities for advertisers while also delivering on the ease of trade. Beyond our core business, we are focused on enhancing our ability to leverage our existing assets and expertise into a new and adjacent growth market, such as our RIO offering that Tony mentioned earlier. I'll now turn to some commentary on current trading.
Out-of-home is expected to continue taking revenue share from other media sectors, particularly from television and radio, and the industry expects mid- to high single-digit revenue growth in 2024. Major advertising agencies are also expecting similar growth for out-of-home in 2024. OOH's Q1 revenue grew by 1% on the PCP. This was in line with the commentary we provided at our full-year results in February 2024, noting that Q1 is traditionally the smallest revenue quarter of the year. Our Q1 revenue growth for the first quarter was 6%, excluding the revenue written on Vicinity in the PCP... OOH's Q1 performance across classic inventory in retail and street furniture declined 33%, with the rest of the business growing at 7%. And OOH will continue to invest in increasing the digital penetration in these two formats in 2024 and 2025.
April media revenue performance compared to April of 2023 showed modest growth, and visibility on the rest of the quarter remains short. We continue to expect that revenue growth in the second half of 2024 will improve, fueled by the rollout of Woolworths and Sydney Metro new assets and the ongoing digitization of assets across our network. We also continue to expect that gross margin will be in line with the prior year, subject to revenue performance and mix in the second half. As always, we will continue to exercise cost discipline. There has been no change to our CapEx guidance provided at the full-year result. Group CapEx for 2024 is expected to be between AUD 45 million-AUD 55 million, in line with recent tender wins. However, the final result is always contingent upon development approvals.
In closing, I want to acknowledge the efforts of our people across oOh!media for their continued contribution to our business, and I also want to thank our shareholders for your ongoing support. Thank you.
Thanks, Cathy. The notice of meeting was provided to shareholders, and I will take it as read. I will now outline the procedures for today's meeting. On voting, before moving to the various resolutions to be considered today, for those here in person, I'd like to draw your attention to the voting and question procedures for today's meeting, which are shown on the screen. Please take a moment to read. Sorry, please note that only shareholders, proxy holders, or shareholder company representatives may vote. Eligible shareholders will be able to cast their vote for, against, or abstain for each resolution during the meeting. In accordance with the company's constitution and as set out in the notice of meeting, as chair, I've determined that voting on each of the resolutions will be conducted by a poll.
The results of the meeting will be released to the ASX as soon as possible after the conclusion of the meeting. I now declare the poll open. Where the chair has been appointed as proxy, I intend to vote all undirected proxies in favor of each resolution. We will attempt to answer all questions raised during the meeting. However, if the same or a similar question is received multiple times, we will answer the question only once. We'll now move to the formalities of the meeting. The first item is to receive and consider the company's report for the financial year ended December 31, 2023. Cathy and I have already discussed the company's performance during the year. Kiki Peterson from KPMG is available to take questions about the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the independent audit report.
There's a separate agenda item dealing with the remuneration report. There will be no vote on this item relating to the financial report. It's a discussion item only. I will now address any questions relating to this item of business or any general business questions. Are there any questions from the floor? Are there any questions, Mel, from any online or anything? No. Okay, so with no further questions, let's move to the resolutions of the meeting. Resolution 1 is the adoption of the remuneration report. This is a resolution relating to the Rem report for the year ending 31st of December, 2023, the resolution set out on the slide. I will now address any questions relating to this item of business. Any questions from the floor? Mel? Nope. Detailed on the slide are the proxy votes for this item submitted prior to the meeting.
Is that coming up? Great. Please now record your vote for resolution one on your voting card. As resolution two relates to my re-election as a director, I will now ask David Wiadrowski as Chair of the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Committee, to chair this section of the meeting.
Thank you, Tony, and good morning to shareholders, management, and guests and visitors this morning. Before I ask Tony to address the meeting, I'd speak on behalf of the board that Tony's enthusiasm, commitment, and energy and knowledge of our business and the industry is first rate, and the board is unanimous in its support for Tony's re-election as a director. So Tony, if you'd like to address the meeting, please.
Get back up here. Thank you, David. Thanks for those words. I've now been an oOh!media board member for 10 years, and your chair for the past 7. My passion and belief in what we can achieve as a business have only strengthened in that time. Our shared vision for a data-enabled, digital, out-of-home advertising company, well-placed to take advertising revenue share from traditional media, is playing out as we speak, and we are very well-placed to grow from here. I hope I've been able to play a significant role in this, in helping to assemble and then lead the very talented group of individuals that is our board, and then having that board work constructively together with Cathy and her management team to maximize the value of your company....
I also chair one other listed board and several private ones in both technology and advertising-related industries, and I hope that this experience helps oOh! and me to operate more effectively. So in conclusion, I'd be delighted to continue as your chair. Thanks, David.
The resolution is in front of you there. Are there any questions on resolution two from the floor? And Mel, are there any questions from anyone online? As there are no questions, I now put resolution two to the meeting. And that resolution is that, Mr. Faure, who retires in accordance with Clause 8.1 of the company's constitution, and being eligible for election, is re-elected as a director of the company. Details are on the slide of the proxy votes that have been received and submitted prior to the meeting. The directors, with Tony Faure abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Please now record your vote for Resolution two on your voting card. Thank you, and I'll now pass the chair of the meeting back to Tony.
Thanks, David. Resolution three is the re-election of Andrew Stevens, as a director. The board again strongly supports Andrew's re-election. He contributes enormously to the board with very significant experience in both technology and financial matters. I'll ask Andrew to say a few words.
Thank you very much, Tony, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Apologies for my even more than normal radio voice. Thank you for joining us at the AGM of your company, oOh!media Limited, and thank you for your ongoing support. I'm Andrew Stevens, and I'm pleased to have served as a non-executive director since September 2020, and as a member of the Audit and Risk and Technology and Transformation Committees. The notice of meeting has details of my background, and experience, so I won't repeat those, but I will point out my relevant qualifications and experience for my ongoing role as a non-executive director of your company. I'm Chair of the Federal Government's Industry Innovation and Science Advisory Board, and Chair of the Data Standards Body for the Consumer Data Right in Australia, which you know, may know as Open Banking and Open Energy.
I also spent 12 years at IBM, the last five as Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand. I'm a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, which keeps me connected with the profession and the conduct of its members in commerce, and in the profession, and allows me to stay up to date with matters of disclosure, and performance. Therefore, I have specific capability and experience in the operational, data, and technology issues that oOh!media has and is likely to encounter as we help our customers access the audiences they seek, and to become more successful in the campaigns they operate as a result. It's a personal honor to serve you in this capacity, and I thank you very much for your ongoing support.
Thanks, Andrew. Are there any questions on resolution three from the floor or online, Mel? No. Okay, in which case, the resolution is up, and I'd ask you to record your vote. The directors, with Andrew abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolu-- of, of this resolution, so please vote now. We'll move on then to resolution four, which is, relates to the approval of the issue of securities under oOh!media's Equity Incentive Plan, as outlined in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions on resolution four? Okay, given there are no further questions, I will put resolution four to the meeting, and it's on the screen, in front of you. Detailed on the slide are the proxy votes for this item submitted prior to the meeting.
The directors unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Please now record your vote for resolution four on your voting card. Thank you. We'll now move to resolution five, which relates to the approval of the managing director's participation in the oOh!media Equity Incentive Plan and the award of performance rights, as outlined in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions on resolution five? Okay, if there are no further questions, I will put resolution five to the meeting. Again, that resolution is on the screen, and then detailed on this slide are the proxy votes for this item submitted prior to the meeting. The directors, with Cathy abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Please now record your vote for resolution five on your voting card. Thank you.
We'll then move to resolution six, which relates to the approval of the managing director's participation in the oOh!media Equity Incentive Plan and the award of restricted shares, as outlined in the notice of meeting. Are there any questions on resolution six? That's a no. Detailed on the slide again are, first of all, the resolution, and then the proxy votes for this item submitted prior to the meeting. The directors, with Cathy again abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Please record your vote for this resolution on your voting card. Thank you. As there's no other business, I will now close the meeting. Please provide Link with your voting cards for those of you at the venue today. The results of the poll will be announced on the ASX later today.
And finally, on behalf of the board, I would again like to thank you for your support and your attendance and participation in this meeting. I declare the meeting closed.