Thank you. Good morning and welcome. I'm here today with oOh!media's newly appointed Chief Financial Officer, Chris Roberts, and together we'll take you through the 2022 half year results for the company. For today's agenda, we'll turn to slide two. I'll start today with an overview of the highlights and our revenue performance. Chris will cover the financial results, and I'll return to provide some comments on our plans for growth and the current outlook. Before we move to the highlights, I'll make some comments about the half year. 2022 has certainly been a year where we are now starting to see a return to more normal behavior patterns, both in terms of audiences in general and in terms of advertisers.
As the largest and most diversified player in the out-of-home sector in Australia and New Zealand, oOh!media will continue to benefit from the growth in the out-of-home sector. As we'll touch on today, we expect that growth to extend beyond a recovery from COVID to the structural growth for the sector. As evidence of that journey, we saw strong underlying growth in the half, and we're well-positioned into the second half to continue that trajectory. Our industry has made substantial advancements in the measurement of out-of-home, with new measurement of digital assets validating out-of-home as the go-to medium for broadcast audiences. In the current business climate, we are focused on leveraging our unrivaled scale to compete for company and sector growth. At the same time, working to ensure we remain resilient to any short-term macroeconomic headwinds.
I believe the company to be navigating that balance very well. As you'll see from today's results, and it is with some confidence today that I'm outlining our progress on that journey. Let's now move to today's presentation, and if you have access to the slides, we'll start today at slide four. Starting with the highlights. We saw a strong return to revenue growth and positive earnings leverage in the half. Revenues of AUD 276.1 million were up AUD 26 million or 10% on the PCP, with road, retail, and street furniture above 2019 pre-COVID for the first half, continuing the strong momentum from Q4 of 2021. Adjusted underlying EBITDA of AUD 51.5 million increased by AUD 19.8 million or 62%.
We saw an 8x increase in the adjusted NPAT to AUD 20.4 million, or an increase of AUD 18.1 million. This demonstrates that the business is delivering on its strong operating leverage as we anticipated in our prior presentations. We remain very focused on delivering our future growth strategy. We are upbeat about the structural growth of out-of-home and are continuing to see increased use of digital, driven by MOVE 1.5 measurement, an improved use of creative content, and programmatic trading across the sector. The digitization of our assets is ongoing, and we have a strong CapEx pipeline into H2 and 2023. Our Q3 pacing is currently at 37% versus lockdown-impacted PCP, and this Q3 pacing represents 98% of the same time pacing in 2019.
In terms of the strength of our balance sheet and capital management, our debt finance facility has been extended to 2026. The board has declared an interim dividend of AUD 0.015 per share, fully franked. We announced an on-market share buyback of up to 10% of share capital, circa AUD 75 million. Over on slide five, we highlight the H1 key financials. We can see strong performance improvements right across the board on prior years. This has resulted in double-digit revenue growth of 10%, an adjusted growth margin up by 2.6 percentage points to 44.8%. Further leveraged with 62% increase in underlying EBITDA and an 8x increase in adjusted underlying net profit after tax. Chris will talk to the difference between adjusted and underlying results later in today's presentation.
Our gearing is down to 0.4 x and a fully franked interim dividend of AUD 0.015 and a capital buyback of up to 10% of issued shares or circa AUD 75 million both announced and expected to commence in September. Moving on to a revenue update over on slide six. Our 10% revenue growth on PCP was led by broadcast formats with road, retail, and street all outperforming 2019. Revenues grew for all formats throughout the first half, and we did see our Q2 somewhat impacted by the federal election, which we outlined at the AGM in May. To provide further perspective on our first half revenue, excluding Sydney Trains and Junkee, revenues grew by 15%.
Road continued to be the best performing category, exceeding 2019 by 36%. Street and rail experienced strong growth after excluding the impact of Sydney Trains from the first half of 2021. Revenue growth would have been 12% versus PCP, with street performing above pre-COVID levels. Retail is exhibiting strong growth throughout the first half of 2022, led by strong audiences, and is now returning to 2019 levels. Fly is showing month-on-month revenue growth as airlines increase capacity and passenger audiences return. Locate, which largely consists of office, grew by 19% and continued to be impacted through lower audience numbers in the Sydney and Melbourne CBDs. Our out-of-home market share of 43% is across Australia and New Zealand.
I'll now hand over to Chris, and he'll take you through some further detail on the financials, and then I'll be back to talk about future plans, and then we'll go to questions. Over to you, Chris.
Thank you, Cathy, and good morning. Turning to slide eight. As Cathy outlined from this interim result onwards, oOh! is now referring to the financial results previously presented as pre-AASB 16 as adjusted results. As a reminder, AASB 16 principally impacts cost of goods sold, depreciation and interest, thus typically overstating the gross profit and EBITDA of the business versus how management views the business itself. We believe that the focus on adjusted results is appropriate as management, most analysts, shareholders and indeed our lending banks analyze the company on an adjusted results basis. Our statutory reported results incorporating AASB 16 are provided in the interim report, and a reconciliation to our adjusted results is provided in the appendices. You can see from the chart on the left the performance of the business on an adjusted basis.
A 10% growth in revenues in the half over the prior comparative period delivered a 17% increase in gross profit and a 62% uplift in adjusted underlying EBITDA. The chart on the right outlines the statutory results, whereby the same 10% growth in revenue delivered a 10% uplift in gross profit and an 18% increase in underlying EBITDA. As noted in the slide, adjusted EBITDA is a much better proxy for understanding the underlying cash flows generated by the business in the reporting period. Moving on to slide nine. As just outlined, revenues increased by AUD 26 million or 10% compared to the first half of 2021. I note Cathy's earlier comment that this revenue growth is on a reported basis and the prior year's period's revenues were not rebased for the loss of Sydney Trains contract or the sale of Junkee Media.
Overall, the result represented 91% for the same period revenues in the pre-COVID first half of 2019. The gross margin level increased by 2.6 percentage points to 44.8% as the business benefited by both its fixed-cost operating leverage as revenues grew and a margin mix due to road. Additionally, the exit of the Sydney Trains contract provided margin support of 20 basis points. AUD 7.3 million of net rent abatements were received in the half, the details of which I will cover later. Operating expenditure improved on the prior corresponding period by AUD 1.5 million or 2%.
The sale of Junkee Media resulted in a decrease in the operating cost base of AUD 2.5 million, which was partially offset by the AUD 1.1 million in JobKeeper received in the first half of last year, subsequently repaid in the second half of 2021. Rebasing the prior period for these resulted in a comparative cost base in June for the first half of 2021 of AUD 72.1 million, as outlined in the appendices on slide 13. One-off employee costs of AUD 1.3 million and an inflation impact of AUD 1.3 million were offset by a reduction in annual and long service leave, reduced head office net rent and other minor items to arrive at a total H1 2022 operating cost of AUD 72.0 million.
The business will continue to run its cost base in a disciplined fashion, as Cathy will outline further on in this presentation. The leverage achieved at the gross profit level was further enhanced at the underlying EBITDA margin level, improving by 6.0 percentage points to 18.7%. There were no non-operating items in the period, and EBITDA increased by AUD 18.4 million or 62% over the prior year period. Depreciation and amortization costs reduced by AUD 4.8 million versus the prior period. This included the release of a make good provision of AUD 1.2 million, with the balance relating to the accounting end of life of several assets, of which the bulk were AUD 3 million relating to the Sydney Trains contract.
Net finance costs decreased AUD 3.6 million, driven by the lower average debt for the half and a gain on interest rate hedges of AUD 1.1 million, versus a loss of AUD 1.3 million in the prior comparative period. The business has AUD 150 million of interest rate hedges remaining on the books when it took out in October 2018 when it acquired Adshel. These hedges position the group well in a rising interest rate environment. NPAT before amortization of acquired intangibles was a profit of AUD 13.9 million for the period on an adjusted basis, compared to a AUD 4.1 million loss in the prior period. Adjusted NPAT was a profit of AUD 20.4 million compared to a AUD 2.2 million profit in the prior period.
As Cathy outlined earlier, a AUD 0.015 per share interim and fully franked dividend, representing 44% of the first half adjusted NPAT has been declared and is payable in September. In the appendix to this presentation, we provide a reconciliation of statutory NPAT to adjusted NPAT. I will now briefly cover the statutory results over on slide 10. You will note that the AUD 26 million increase in revenues had an effective drop through of AUD 23.1 million or 89% to profit before tax. This is similar to the adjusted drop through of AUD 26.8 million outlined on the prior slide, with the difference relating to timing differences on fixed lease accounting under AASB 16. The group produced a statutory profit of AUD 6.1 million versus a loss of AUD 9.3 million in the prior first half.
Moving to slide 11, which outlines the impact of rent abatements received in the first half. As forecast at the FY 2021 results in February this year, the abatements received have continued to decline from circa AUD 8 million for Fly and AUD 10 million for Rail in the second half of 2021, respectively to AUD 4 million each in the first half of 2022. This is as a function of the exit from the Sydney Trains contract and improved audiences and revenues in these formats. The abatements will continue to apply in the second half to various degrees, while audiences and/or revenues below that set in FY 2019 in the rail and airport environments. It is not expected that the abatements will be material in FY 2023. Moving to our cash flow on slide 12.
The half was another strong period of cash generation for the business, following strong operating cash flows in 2021, and these have further strengthened our balance sheet position. Operating cash flow conversion of 77% of EBITDA was slightly lower than the 84% achieved in the prior comparative period. The prior comparative period, however, had AUD 12 million of incentives that were paid in shares versus AUD 8 million in cash in the current half. This difference was partly mitigated through AUD 9 million of cash net inflows in the first half of 2021, which related to net abatements or rent accruals carried over from FY 2020. Capital expenditure of AUD 9 million was focused on the digitization of assets, predominantly in the road and retail portfolios. The appetite for the business to take advantage of digitization opportunities was constrained by supply and weather-related challenges in the first half.
The business expects that the full year CapEx to be in the range of AUD 25 million-AUD 35 million, which will likely more than double the investment in the first half. The CapEx in the second half will include the installation of new assets in the Fly portfolio, as well as street furniture digitization based on recent contract renewals. AUD 1.0 final dividend was paid in March 2022, totaling AUD 6 million, signaling that the business had returned to its pre-COVID-19 policy of paying out between 40%-60% of its adjusted NPAT. It should be noted that the first half is historically lower for cash and EBITDA generation, given usual increased advertiser demand in the second half, increasing our revenues and therefore earnings. Turning to the balance sheet on slide 13.
Gearing continues to reduce due to both a reduction in the absolute net debt and improved earnings. We reported 0.4x gearing at June 2022 versus 0.8 x at December 2021. This is significantly below our gearing covenant of 3.25 x, and the business further strengthens its access to funds through a four-year extension of AUD 350 million revolving debt facilities to June 2026. As mentioned earlier, the business has interest rate hedges of AUD 150 million in place until October 2025, which will continue to limit any adverse cash outflows if interest rates continue to rise in the next few years.
Given the confidence that the board has in the strength of the business's balance sheet, strong cash flow generation expectations, and projected revenue growth, the board announced in addition to an AUD 0.015 interim dividend payable on 22 September, an on-market buyback of up to 10% of its share capital or circa AUD 75 million. It is expected that this will commence in September and will be completed somewhere later this year or early next. The business will retain ample liquidity for accelerated CapEx investment or attractive opportunities should they arise. I will now hand back over to Cathy.
Thank you, Chris. We'll now look to the future. I'll ask you to please turn to slide 15. As said earlier, we remain focused on our strategy for growth across three pillars. It starts with growing top-line revenue. We have a focus on expanding margins and finally increasing ROI. I'll look into these three pillars in more detail on the next slides. Over on slide 16. As the sector's largest player, we benefit most from out-of-home sector growth. It is pleasing to see the structural growth of out-of-home returning. In SMI data, we see the sector growing to an 11.6% share of all media over the half. What is significant about this trend is that out-of-home took 14% of all agency revenue growth for the half.
Our launch of 378 new digital sites, which included 11 new road digitals and 21 new and upgraded retail centers, brings us further capacity for growth. The launch of MOVE 1.5 in January, with metrics clearly showing the strongest ROI results from blending digital and classic formats. This, of course, is a strength of oOh!'s extensive network. We have an active focus on rate and occupancy. Digital occupancy is up in 2022 versus 2019, in line with the industry's transition to digital advertising, and we saw rate improvements over H1. This speaks to the underlying healthy demand for digital out-of-home. We increased our resourcing in the direct sales team, which serves the SME market, with five new roles in Australia and one in New Zealand, and also new forms of customer acquisition currently under trial.
We've delivered an increase in the percentage contribution from this customer segment as a result of those initiatives, and we expect this to continue. Our programmatic revenues grew from 0.5% of revenue in Q1 of the half to 1.2% in Q2, off limited inventory across road and street furniture. Over on slide 17, in terms of expanding margins, we are focused on both gross margin and EBITDA margin percentages. We are applying discipline in committing to contracts that are desired, yet also a willingness to walk away from expired or new contracts that don't meet our targeted criteria. We have consolidated our commercial teams now under a single executive leader, and we continue to reprioritize our resources to high-growth areas.
There has been no net increase in headcount, and we've applied discipline in cost control in both COGS and OpEx, and this has contributed to an increase in adjusted gross profit margin of 2.6 percentage points to 44.8% and adjusted underlying EBITDA margin increase of 6 percentage points to 18.7%. Over on slide 18, our return on invested capital has improved to 11% for the first half, compared to 8.7% for the full year 2021. Underpinning oOh!'s growth plans, we have a very strong pipeline of digital sites under construction and pending development approval, with a view of CapEx for 2022, as Chris mentioned, of between AUD 25 million-AUD 35 million and returning to normalized annual averages of between AUD 40 million-AUD 60 million from 2023 onwards, depending on the timing of lease renewals.
Dividends were reinstated at our final year results in 2021, and now an interim dividend has been declared in 2022. We announced the on-market buyback of 10% of issued share capital, circa AUD 75 million. These are all demonstrations of delivering on ROI for investors. Over on slide 19, this slide shows the progress we've made in growing the out-of-home sector. As stated repeatedly, measurement is one of the key drivers. MOVE 1.5, now established for six months, has given us that essential base currency to validate our mass audiences on a like-for-like basis within the sector and on a whole-of-industry basis against other media. What's interesting is that MOVE usage by agencies increased 41% in Q2 of 2022 versus the prior year.
This shows that these are the advancements that advertisers and agencies have been waiting for. Further introduction of new and improved metrics, such as the Neuro Impact Factor, is helping out-of-home to deliver greater reach, share of time, and impact to advertisers according to their campaign objectives. We expect out-of-home audiences will continue to grow through immigration and the continued urbanization of our cities. Now looking ahead, we'll talk outlook, so I'll ask you to move to slide 21. Understandably, there has been much attention on the more audience-impacted formats of Fly and Office, and these continue to provide an upside audience and revenue opportunity for the business. To provide you with some context on both of these. Firstly, Fly. Fly delivered AUD 65.9 million of revenue in 2019.
Our first half revenues of AUD 12.2 million reflects month-on-month growth with pent-up demand for domestic and international travel that we've seen. Domestic passengers reached 90% of 2019 in April and May, and demand for travel continues to outstrip airline capacity. This augurs well for a continuation of the steady build we are seeing in Fly. Our office products continue to deliver valuable business audiences. Locate, which is predominantly office, delivered AUD 44.3 million of revenue in 2019. There has been much commentary on the potential structural changes in CBD audience behavior. We believe that CBD audiences will remain highly valuable for advertisers, and are envisaging a likely three- to four-day work week for the foreseeable future. This remains an effective way to reach a premium professional business audience, albeit at a potentially lower frequency.
Through our data offering and our diverse assets, oOh! can target these valuable groups in other ways to supplement office campaigns based on real data intelligence on customer journeys. This will enable us to steadily grow office revenues, albeit at a marginally slower pace than the recovery we're seeing in Fly and other formats. Office continues to be one of the highest margin formats for oOh!, and it's an important part of our portfolio. Given recent uncertainty in the economic outlook, I'd like to speak now to our business model over on slide 22. oOh!'s business model is resilient to inflationary pressures, and its interest rate hedges provide buffer against interest rate movements, as we've said earlier in the presentation.
As illustrated by the pie chart on the left, 75% of the fixed rent, which is our biggest cost line in the business, has annual increases that are not linked to CPI, and the remaining 25% is linked to CPI. The balance of rent in our business is variable and thus linked to revenues. The business has hedges of up to AUD 150 million of gross debt, and these factors provide some insulation from inflationary pressures. Finally, we turn to the outlook on slide 23. It's certainly been a solid start to 2022. We believe that out-of-home will continue to take share from other media in the second half. Total Q3 revenues are currently pacing 30% higher than this time last year, with all formats except rail, due to the loss of Sydney Trains, pacing at double-digit growth.
We'll continue to run a disciplined cost focus as illustrated in our first half performance. 2022 full-year CapEx is expected to accelerate in H2, and the business expects to invest, as we've said, between AUD 25 million and AUD 35 million, versus AUD 15 million in 2021 for the full year, with the higher end of the range depending on the outcome and timing of lease renewals and development approvals. On slide 24, to recap the main points of today's presentation. oOh! has delivered significantly improved earnings and profitability. Revenue and margin growth is clear. Our balance sheet is strong. We are confident for further growth from both within our formats and for the broader out-of-home sector, and this is reflected in our Q3 pacing at 30% above last year. The out-of-home fundamentals remain strong. Out-of-home revenue share is growing and returning towards pre-COVID levels.
oOh!'s strategy, as outlined today, will result in a more digital and digitized business with a disciplined focus on leveraging the market's leading out-of-home networks to deliver sustainable growth. That concludes today's slide presentation, and we'll look forward to discussing aspects of the results with many of you in the coming days. I'll now hand it back to our moderator for any questions that you may have. Thank you.
Thank you. To ask a question, please press star one on your phone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. The first question today comes from Ben Rada-Martin from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning, Cathy and Chris. Thanks very much for the questions this morning. I just had three, if that's okay. The first is just around that second quarter comment on the federal election impact. Maybe just worth if you could wrap some numbers around what potential impact that could be in May and whether you saw an improvement in the growth trajectory into June. My second one is on third quarter trading. You know, certainly appreciate the comments on 37% revenue growth versus the PCP. Just confirming that also includes headwinds from the Sydney Trains contract coming out. If we look at slide 28, are we right to think that implies about AUD 137 million run rate for the quarter with third quarter 2021 being around AUD 100 million?
Finally on CapEx, you know, just noting you continue to pull back on spend expectations for this year. Might just be worth it if you could touch on what has changed since you last updated the market in May around potential, you know, supply chain impacts or a pushback in investment. Thanks.
Thank you. Just firstly, to the Q4 performance, obviously we did, as we expected to see some marginal impact in our May result due to the federal election, but we expected it would largely be isolated to the month of May, and it was. In particular, the business has an exposure to street furniture, and many of those environments do not and did not welcome political advertising. And of course, that did impact some of the demand into those areas of the business. Obviously, in terms of our share performance and revenue growth year-on-year since May, I'm very comfortable that we're seeing a consistent upward trajectory in both. As I thought it would be an isolated short-term impact, it was certainly felt in Q4.
Our growth was 4% for that quarter and is 10% year to date. A couple of things also about the 10% year to date number. If we exclude the impact of Sydney Trains and Junkee from the H1 2021 results in the prior year, then the underlying revenue growth is up 15% year-on-year. Chris, you want to add anything further to the.
No. Thank you, Cathy. Just on the second and on the third question, Ben, just to reconfirm, the 37% pacing is versus as we reported last year. We have not rebased our 2021 Q3 results for the loss of Sydney Trains. In relation to the CapEx, just to provide some color there, as we touched on in the presentation, we have renewed a couple of street furniture contracts with councils in Australia. Generally with street furniture contracts, the major wave of digitization is at either beginning of winning those initially or at recontracting for a renewal period.
We also placed fairly significant orders for digital screens in the last four months to make sure that we had that inventory available for when we started those installation programs, and that's on track to arrive on our shores during the second half.
Great. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Entcho Raykovski from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Morning, Cathy. Morning, Chris. My first question is around the outlook and the pickup that you're seeing in Q3. Interested in your thoughts on whether that's mainly driven by the easy comps in the PCP, given the lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne, or whether you're seeing a better underlying market. A few of the other media operators have pointed to an improvement in August, September into year-end. Just interested in your thoughts around how you're seeing the market going forward.
Thanks, Entcho. The pacing figure of 37% is very strong. As Chris said, we have not rebased the comparative period for Sydney Trains, so take that as part of the context in which you view that 37% pacing. Q3 was obviously a very lockdown-impacted quarter last year. What we see from our own mobility data is that the audiences have increased by about one-third year-on-year. About 33% more audiences moving throughout our road-based environments, which is 75% of the business. I think you can sort of view the 37% pacing as possibly slightly ahead of any audience-based impacts.
What I would also say, just in terms of our media's performance, the industry only releases quarterly market data, which I think is the right approach. It would be fair to say we've had a very strong start to the quarter.
Okay, great. No, that's very useful. I guess, I mean, you contrast that with the first half where, ex-Sydney Trains and Junkee, you've said revenue growth was circa 15%. I think that was lower than what OMA was showing at 20% for the market. I guess how do you reconcile the difference in the first half? It sounds like, I mean, from your comments, you're pretty comfortable you'll be outperforming as opposed to underperforming the market in the second half.
Yeah, look, as we sort of said, the comparator for the OMA data is, you know, somewhat impacted by the Sydney Trains and the Junkee revenues, which were in the first half of 2021. There's also not reported in OMA data things like cleaning and maintenance revenue. Obviously those things haven't seen the rebound of ad revenue. Again, just another factor in that trajectory. You're absolutely right. If you take the pattern of Q3, you compare that to our first half performance, you look at the relative growth rates that have been mentioned by the other established media companies, TV, radio and so forth for Q3, and it would be fair to say that there is a building momentum there.
That's something that we're very confident and happy about.
Great. Thank you. Final one from me. I don't know if you've got any views on how the Woolworths acquisition of Shopper Media perhaps can impact competition in the retail segment and whether that's something you might be worried about going forward?
Thank you. That's an understandable question, and there's been a lot of interesting commentary in the retailer space more generally, retailer media space in particular. So yeah, the acquisition is really a demonstration, I think, of the complementary nature of what we do, which is retail out-of-home with retail media, which is in-store media. I think the retailers themselves are one of the largest categories of advertiser in out-of-home. You know, obviously they have well and truly understood that the role we play is essentially quite different to the role of retailer media. We're a path to purchase mass reach medium, and our addressable market is the advertising market. So even in this retailer media space, I think it's forecasted about AUD 2 billion by 2026.
The far bigger addressable market for us is the AUD 10 billion digital market and the AUD 20 billion advertising market. We sort of see it as a complementary play. I think out-of-home is really well placed to demonstrate how it partners well with retail media. I think it's probably as much an opportunity for the sector to grow support for retail media more generally. I think we can demonstrate that effectiveness with the work that we're doing across a range of categories. The other thing I'll say is that 60% of our retail media is non-FMCG, so customers that don't exist inside the retail space.
That gives you just some sense of the differentiation between what we do in retail versus what a big retailer may do in store. It is a space that's of great interest. Most retailers are talking about it. Most are interested in understanding the opportunities to work together in the space. I think there'll be a lot more to say on it in future. Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Darren Leung from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity, guys. Just three from me quickly, please. Just on that 30%, 37% third quarter number, in relation to it being materially ahead of audience-based data, can you give us a feel for how much of that is due to rate or CPM increases, please? That's the first one. Second question is just on the rental abatements in FY 2023. Limited expected in FY 2023, but is this because the rental abatement contracts have expired, or is this driven by view that Fly and Commute will return back to 2019 levels, if not materially higher? Then just the final sort of mechanical one. If we look at that cost of goods sold bridge, the AUD 3 million increase in fixed rent.
If we compare that against the rent base of about AUD 80 million in the half, does this mean that the fixed escalators are closer to 3% rather than on a fixed basis?
I'll talk to the first question, and then I might hand to Chris on a couple of the more financial questions there. Rates are certainly up, Darren, in Q3. Therefore we're driving where there is such strong demand, we're driving good yield increases. You can assume that the market is prepared to pay where demand is strong. That's right across the board. In terms of the other question, Chris, do you wanna-
Yeah, sure. Apologies, Darren, the line wasn't great on our end, so I'm just going to clarify. I think your second question you were asking about abatements. Just on slide 11, was the question is that decline versus last year because of contracts ceasing or rather recovery in audience and revenues? Is that correct?
Yeah, just that last bullet point, you know, immaterial or not material abatements in FY 2023.
Um-
Is that because? Yeah.
Yeah. That's predicated on an assumption that we expect there to be, for the most part, better audiences and revenues in those environments. The abatements and how they are structured are a function of audiences and revenues in FY 2019. To the extent that audiences and revenues get closer to FY 2019, the way the mechanisms work, the abatements will reduce.
Got that. Thank you.
Great. You also asked a question around the COGS bridge on in the appendices in slide 29. I think the question was in relation to the escalators on the rates. Is that correct?
Yes.
Yep. The escalators on our fixed rent is a blended number. You know, the blend there generally sits in our business anywhere between 3%-4% per annum.
Understood. Thank you.
Sure.
The next question comes from Fraser McLeish from MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. I've got three as well, actually. Just the first one, just that May, June trading, wouldn't mind just understanding a wee bit better because you previously said April was up 18%, then you did 4% for the half. It doesn't sound like you're seeing the election impact, you know, a little bit, but not huge. Just, yeah, wouldn't mind understanding that a bit better, please. What really happened there? The next one's just on the comment for your pacing at 98% of 2019 in Q3. If I remember, there was quite a big difference between Q3 and Q4 in 2019. You know, you had, I think, a much softer Q3 and a better Q4.
You know, should we be reading that 98% through to Q4, or will those comps have a big impact on that? Then my last one would just be on any kinda big contract renewals or tenders coming up over the next 12 months. Thanks.
Thank you, Fraser. Just to provide some context on the April, May, and June performance. In terms of revenue, sorry, I'm just having a look here. We've got April at 22%, May at 9.4%, and June at 5.8%. That gives you your quarterly figure. In terms of the question about Q4, we're not really guiding into Q4. I would say more generally that the mood is quite upbeat from advertisers. Briefing activity continues to be strong, and I feel almost a contradiction between what we're sort of seeing in the narrative about the macroeconomics and positivity of advertisers around planning for the future.
As a sort of precursor into Q4, I think we're feeling that the customer base is quite active and engaged. In terms of big contract renewals, we don't comment on those. Obviously, we understand the question, but obviously they're commercially sensitive, so I'll decline to answer that one. Anything more you'd like to add, Chris, to that?
Yeah. Hi, Fraser McLeish. Just in reference in terms of the April numbers that Cathy provided, 22%, that's Australian media. The 18% that we provided was across the whole business. Yeah, absolutely, to reinforce Cathy's comment in relation to Q4, we are confident that you know, we remain on track to get to run rate of 2019 at the back end of this year.
Thanks.
Thank you once again. To ask a question, please press star one on your phone. The next question comes from John Campbell from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks, guys. Just a couple of questions from me. Most of the good ones have already been asked. Just on wage inflation on slide 30, if we can infer that the piece that you've put in for wage inflation suggests it's running at sort of 2%, less than 2% on PCP, where do you see wage inflation in your sector in this environment? I mean, one would imagine it's quite a bit higher than what you've experienced in the last six months.
Thank you for the question, John. We put through our wage increases in Q1 of the calendar year. That's been something that sort of been applicable and worked within our cost envelope this year. There's certainly been, in parts of the business, higher wage inflation, but we've managed to deal with that in the context of the total cost provision. I would say I think it's starting to temper itself somewhat across the sector. We're quite comfortable with the levels of attrition in the business. They've actually started to go back down in a positive way, and we're even getting some staff members come back to the business.
Because of course, we try to build a lot more in our employee value proposition than just REM. Obviously, there's a cultural piece, and the investments we make into learning and development and career paths and so forth are all very important to us as well. In terms of next calendar year, we'll obviously, being a calendar year budget base, we'll assess the external dynamics the further out we go and look to provide for the right, what we think is the right provision into 2023. But I think, for the balance of 2022, I think we're managing to that allocation well.
Okay. Thanks, Cathy.
John, just to clarify, just one of your opening premises is the inflation that we provide on that bridge is predominantly wage inflation, but the base cost of AUD 72 is not all wages.
Got it.
On a like-for-like basis, that AUD 1.3 million represents somewhere between 2.5%-3% on the wage.
Okay. Perfect. Thanks, Chris. In terms of, I think, you've sort of implied over the last six months that you're basically right-sized in terms of headcount. I presume headcount's not gonna increase dramatically as the ad environment improves?
No, we don't see that it needs to. We've sort of been quite disciplined in just trying to prioritize, you know, obviously with the further digitization of the trading side of the business, so lots of new skills and capability required. We've been able to reprioritize costs, and live within our cost envelope, to be able to meet those sort of new capability demands that we're feeling as we become more digital and digitized. No, I don't see that headcount will have any sort of unforeseen increases. We're very firm that we can live within the current headcount base moving forward.
Okay. Thanks, Cathy. Just in terms of the gross margin and given the, you know, how you've characterized it on slide 22, that 72% gross margin for the half, on post AASB and which also is about 72% on incremental revenues. Is it fair to say that that looks a pretty good go-forward figure given the structure of the rents, that you have currently 75, 25? Does that look like a reasonable, as revenues come back into the business that that gross margin continues to be around about the right level?
Yeah. We think that's a reasonable estimation of what to expect going forward.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Chris. Just last one from me. You guys spent, it wasn't fully disclosed what was spent on screens in say 2018 and 2019 in terms of the digitization program. But maybe somewhere in the region of AUD 60 million or maybe a little bit more possibly over those two years. COVID obviously hit, and we probably didn't see the full benefit of the sort of 2018 and 2019 spend. Would it be fair to say that there is some incremental revenue that should flow through or on that specific spend in those two years leading up to COVID, or do you think that that's largely captured in the numbers as we see them?
No, John. There remains opportunity to grow that revenue base because absolutely, you nailed it. When we did those CapEx rollouts, which was between on a pro forma basis, AUD 50 million-AUD 60 million over 2017, 2018, 2019, it was predicated on a stronger market than actually eventuated. We remain having the capacity to increase both rates and occupancy on that existing inventory, let alone the upside that we foresee for further CapEx in the years ahead.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks for that, Chris. Thanks very much, Cathy and Chris.
Thanks, John.
Thank you. The next question comes from Brian Han from Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Oh, thank you. I have two questions, if I may. Firstly, assuming that airports and office building activities pick up, do you think your advertising growth in Fly and office, do you think that will be partly be at the expense of your roads and street furniture? Or do you think the growth trajectories of these mediums will be independent of one another? My second question, and apologies for my ignorance, but is oOh!media's revenue mostly agency media revenue or is there a meaningful percentage of your revenue not tied to the agency links?
Thank you, Brian. Both very good questions. In terms of the office and Fly customer, they are a different customer base, and often, exclusive advertisers, are drawn to those environments. It's a high-value business customer. We market the two environments as enterprise, and therefore the nature of the customers, the way we take them to market is different and separate to our broadcast format. In that sense, it really is about, the productivity required to, reignite that customer base, and that's happening, well, as you can see in the Fly numbers. As we've mentioned, office is certainly on its way, albeit at a slightly slower pace. We see it's incremental. The other point I will say is that oOh! has a heavier weight to these formats.
We're exclusively in office and a very large operator across the airports and with our Qantas contracts. The share benefit to oOh!media when these formats recover and the incremental nature of it should benefit oOh! more than other out-of-home sector players. Secondly, your other question. Historically, the SME or the direct side of out-of-home is underweight relative to other forms of established media. The direct advertisers marketplace, which is much bigger in television, radio, and print, is only 3% of out-of-home. Only spends 3% in out-of-home. In our case, our split historically has been about 85% agency, 15% direct and boutique agency. We see that shift moving to a higher percentage from the direct and boutique customers over time.
In fact, it did move in the last 12 months as we started to upweight our strategies to target and to service this long tail of SMEs. We think it's a really good opportunity for oOh!media because of the breadth of our formats, particularly with things like street furniture, where we can be hyperlocal in suburbs. It's just a question of getting your resourcing and your customer acquisition strategies right. I think we've made good inroads into improving that. Again, it's incremental. We think the sector growth is largely coming from the agencies currently through standardization and measurement. This SME segment is again another source of incremental growth for the sector.
Thanks, Cathy.
Thank you. At this time, we're showing no further questions. I'll hand the conference back to Cathy for any closing remarks.
Thank you, everyone. Thank you for letting us take you through our first half presentation for oOh!media. As we've said, the revenue trajectory is strong, the margin growth is clear, and the operating leverage in the business is, as expected, starting to show good results at EBITDA level, and of course, the return of capital management strategies, with our dividend and share buyback, now in place. We trust that we'll have much more to talk about as we get through the course of the week. Thank you for your time and attention today.