Good morning, everyone. My name is Tony Faure. I'm the Chair of oOh!media. It is now the scheduled time for the meeting, and I am advised the necessary quorum is present. I have therefore the pleasure of declaring the 2025 oOh!media Limited Annual General Meeting open. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today, the Cammeraygal people of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples joining us today. I live on Gadigal land, and I work here on Cammeraygal land in North Sydney. I was raised in London, where the history and presence of Indigenous communities are far less visible and less formally acknowledged.
Living and working in Australia has given me a deeper appreciation for the enduring connection that First Nations people have to country, a connection that spans more than 60,000 years. It is a privilege to live and work on this land, and I acknowledge the importance of continuing to listen, learn, and reflect. I would like to thank our shareholders for their attendance, whether that is in person here today or, sorry, in the Sydney office, or listening to the audio through the meeting of 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, 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 Pedersen.
Today I'd like to begin by reminding you why oOh! is well positioned for future profitable growth. In a rapidly changing media landscape, the out-of-home advertising market continues to experience structural growth, even as other traditional channels face ongoing challenges. Our network is the largest and most diverse in Australia and New Zealand, reaching over 98% of metropolitan Australians each week and comprises more than 35,000 premium assets. With out-of-home accounting for over 15% of total advertising spend and forecast to grow by high single- to double digits this year, our scale and market leadership mean we are well placed to capitalise on this strong momentum.
The structural growth and outperformance of out-of-home over the wider media market is well illustrated by this chart, which shows that since 2021, out-of-home has grown over 20% more than digital, the next fastest growing channel, while TV, radio, and newspapers have all declined considerably over the same period. The out-of-home category's growth is being driven by several structural trends: lower cost rates that offer advertisers superior return on investment, expanding urban populations and ongoing digital asset investment, creative advancements in digital campaigns, which are driving deeper engagement, and going forward, enhanced audience measurement and campaign tracking through the MOVE 2.0 platform, which is yet to be released. These factors continue to underpin the sector's growth and resilience, with out-of-home remaining the preferred choice for brands seeking broad, impactful reach.
Turning to the financial performance for calendar year 2024, after a first half performance that was below our expectations and those of our shareholders, I am pleased that oOh! finished 2024 with strong momentum, with action taken to drive revenue and market share growth beginning to deliver as intended. For the full year, oOh! delivered revenue of AUD 636 million, with adjusted underlying EBITDA of AUD 129 million and statutory NPAT of AUD 37 million. Our robust balance sheet, with gearing at 0.8 times Adjusted EBITDA, provides us with the flexibility to invest in growth while continuing to return capital to shareholders. Reflecting our confidence in the strength of the business and the outlook, the board declared a fully franked final dividend of AUD 0.035 per share, bringing the total for the year to AUD 0.0525 per share, in line with our policy to return 40%-60% of adjusted NPATR.
Pleasingly, oOh!'s momentum from the second half accelerated in calendar year 2025, with double-digit revenue growth in line with the market delivered in Q1. The improved share outcome demonstrated in Q1 is expected to continue in Q2, reflecting effective action taken to drive revenue growth. Market share improvement is expected to continue for the remainder of 2025, as new assets from contracts announced in 2023 and 2024 come online. On the 29th of April, we announced that Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Cathy O'Connor had advised the board of her intention to step down in the second half of 2025 after more than four years leading the company. Cathy has decided, and the board has agreed, that with the company's performance having improved and with oOh! carrying strong momentum in 2025, the time is right for new leadership to deliver oOh!'s next multi-year phase of strategy execution and growth.
Cathy joined oOh!media as CEO in the middle of the COVID pandemic and has been instrumental in leading the business through a period of significant change. She has led oOh!media through its most successful period of major contract wins, whilst implementing a disciplined commercial mindset and setting the platform for oOh!media's ongoing digital evolution. The board thanks Cathy for her leadership of oOh!media through a transformative period. We are delighted that she will remain with the company until the second half of 2025 to facilitate an orderly transition. Personally, I would like to thank Cathy for her valued partnership in leading the company. I've greatly enjoyed our time working together and look forward to working closely with Cathy for the remainder of her time with oOh!media. The board has commenced a process with a leading global executive search firm to appoint a new Managing Director and CEO.
The comprehensive search process is being overseen by Philippa Kelly in her capacity as Chair of our Talent and Culture Committee and myself. We will, of course, update shareholders on our progress in due course. I'd also like to acknowledge the retirement of Andrew Stevens from the board in February this year. Andrew's expertise and commitment, particularly in financial, technology, and ESG matters, have been invaluable to the board. On behalf of my fellow directors, we thank Andrew for his contribution and wish him well. The board's intention for the interim is to retain six directors, the majority of whom are independent. We feel this is the right balance of skills and experience to guide the company forward.
The board remains highly confident in the company's strategy, focused on energizing oOh!'s sales and go-to-market approach, unlocking the full potential of our market-leading network of 35,000 assets, and positioning the business to lead in the retail media segment. This year, we made good progress in executing our strategy, particularly with the expansion of our Rio retail media business, which secured new partnerships with Petbarn, Officeworks, and Australia Post. These wins validate our approach and position us to capture new recurring revenue streams in a rapidly growing category. We acknowledge that there is a lot of work to be done, but we have high conviction in the power of the strategy to deliver profitable growth and strong customer outcomes, which we feel is reflected in the improved performance of the company. In closing, we are confident that oOh!
is well placed to capitalise on the ongoing momentum in out-of-home, which remains the fastest growing media channel, driven by focused execution on our winning strategy. I'd like to thank Cathy, our leadership team, and all of the people who work at oOh! for their dedication and commitment, and I'd like to thank our shareholders for your ongoing support. I'll now hand over to Cathy to provide more detail on our operational performance and the outlook for 2025.
Thanks, Tony, and thank you all for joining us here today. Beginning by looking at the performance for calendar year 2024, which, as Tony said, was a tale of two halves. After a first half performance that was below our expectations, we took action to drive revenue and market share growth. This began to deliver strong momentum in the second half, and as a result, total revenue for calendar year 2024 was in line with the prior year at AUD 636 million, with momentum returning in the second half across all formats and continuing into calendar year 2025. We retained our strong contract discipline, maintaining robust gross margins while achieving successful contract extensions and wins, delivering AUD 38 million of incremental revenue from 2025.
Pleasingly, our Rio program continues its positive momentum, with three new contracts signed in the period with major Australian retailers, Petbarn, Officeworks, and a pilot with Australia Post. Action taken to right-size our cost base sets a platform for profitable growth in calendar year 2025. To capitalise on the structural growth of out-of-home and cement our market leadership, we have intensified our focus on executing our strategy to accelerate growth. We are doing this by focusing on our three strategic pillars: energising our go-to-market, unlocking our network potential, and leading in retail media. By energising our go-to-market, we mean making it easier for our customers to do business with us, with optimised pricing and the ability to deliver better margin outcomes. We are maximising our ability to drive revenue and market share growth through better use of those assets and faster client response times.
We have strengthened our senior sales leadership with deeper out-of-home experience and have optimized pricing and project implementation tools. Our second pillar is to unlock our network potential, where our priority is to pursue the right mix of high-value contracts at the right price. Our aim is to build a strategic portfolio of high-impact advertising assets that maximize audience reach while delivering strong value and cost efficiency for customers. We want to be number one in road, in street, and in rail in all of our key metro markets, while ensuring that our retail portfolio has the highest footfall in Australia and New Zealand as we continue to increase digital penetration across that particular network. Our final pillar is to lead in retail media, a market projected to be worth AUD 3 billion in Australia by 2027.
We're committed to building a market-leading independent retail media business that taps into new revenue streams. We will do this by partnering with retailers to establish and operate an end-to-end retail media business both in store and online. Our three new contract wins with well-known Australian retailers is evidence of our progress in this space. Onto a trading update and outlook. As we announced in late April, oOh!media's improved second half performance of 2024 accelerated into Q1 of calendar year 2025, with total revenue growth of 13% and growth in Australian media revenue of 16%. This was in line with the Outdoor Media Association. Q2 performance is expected to be similar to Q1, with improved share outcomes reflecting effective action taken to drive revenue growth.
Market share improvement is expected to continue for the remainder of calendar year 2025 as new assets from contracts announced in 2023 and 2024 now come online. We expect oOh!media to experience further tailwinds from future interest rate cuts and further market growth post Labour winning a clear majority in the recent federal election. In the absence of any significant destabilizing economic trends in the second half, out-of-home as a category is expected to grow in high single-digit to double-digit percentage points in 2025. Calendar year adjusted gross margin is expected to be broadly in line with calendar year 2023-2024. Calendar year CapEx for 2025 is expected to be between AUD 45 million-AUD 55 million, and this is largely funding new assets, and it is contingent, as always, upon development approvals. Gearing is expected to remain below one times Adjusted EBITDA.
We expect to deliver net cost savings of approximately AUD 15 million with our restructuring initiatives to right-size the cost base. As mentioned, gearing to remain below one times Adjusted EBITDA. Before moving into the formal business of the meeting, I'd like to address my decision to step down in the second half of the calendar year. The company now has real momentum and a depth and breadth of new talent to chart the course for continued growth. Having discussed with the board the next multi-year phase of execution ahead for oOh!media, we've agreed that the company is now ready for new leadership. Leading oOh!media for the past four years has been one of the most rewarding periods of my career, and I'm incredibly proud of the team's achievements, including our success in attracting new asset contracts and our industry-leading margins.
This has all been delivered in an inflationary environment. oOh! has developed one of the strongest teams in Australian media, including a leadership group that is among the industry's most experienced. I strongly believe in the future growth and growing prominence of the out-of-home industry and that our company, oOh!, has the right strategy to lead this evolution and generate long-term value for our customers, for our people, and our shareholders. I remain absolutely focused on the execution of oOh!'s strategy to continue to grow our market share in an improving out-of-home market. Thanks to the team at oOh! for their ongoing dedication and resilience in a year of much change, and to Tony and the board for their ongoing guidance, and to you, our shareholders, for your support. I'll now hand back over to Tony. Thank you.
Thanks, Cathy. The notes of meeting was provided to shareholders, and I will take that as read. I will now outline the procedures for today's meeting. 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 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 notes of meeting, as Chair, I have 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 that question only once. We will 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 31st of December 2024. Cathy and I have already discussed the company's performance during the year. Kiki Pedersen from KPMG is available to take questions about the conduct of the audit and the preparation and content of the independent audit report. There is a separate agenda item dealing with the remuneration report. There will be no vote on this item relating to the financial report.
It is a discussion item only. I'll now address any questions relating to this item of business or any general business questions. Are there any questions from the floor? Hi.
Hello.
Sorry.
I'm just interested to ask about the change from the first half year to the second half year that you mentioned. There was a great pickup. Is this due to seasonality or is it something else? If it was something else and you had to build things up to get it, what did you actually have to do to increase it?
That's a great question. I think the answer to that would be it was not due to seasonality. It was due to our sales performance as an organization, which we felt was below par. What we had to do was work very hard in the sales organization to make sure that we could change the momentum of the sales result, which we began to do in the second half of the year and have accelerated into the first half of this year.
It was the hard sell, was it?
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you. Any further questions? Okay. With no further questions, we'll move to the resolutions of the meeting. Resolution one, which is the resolution relating to the company's remuneration report for the year ended 31st of December 2024. The resolution is set out on the slide. Are there any questions relating to this item of business? Okay. Detailed on the slide are the proxy votes for this item submitted prior to the meeting. Please now record your vote for resolution one on the voting card. Resolution two relates to the re-election of Philippa Kelly as a director. The board strongly supports the re-election of Philippa Kelly as Philippa contributes to the board with significant experience in governance, risk management, and property and finance matters. Philippa will now say a few words.
Good morning, fellow shareholders. I'm very pleased to be standing here for re-election to your board today. I've served on the oOh!media board now for the past five years and over the past term have continued to work closely with the board and the management team in developing our digital strategy, expanding our network of out-of-home assets, and guiding the capability of our management team. As Australia's out-of-home advertising landscape continues to evolve, I'm committed to further contributing to oOh!media's future growth and supporting the management team to execute on its strategy, reinforcing its position as the leader in out-of-home within Australia and New Zealand. My current director roles include Chair of Investments and I'm an independent director for AustralianSuper, River Capital, a boutique private funds management business, and Private Equity Flexible Work Business Hub Australia.
As a full-time non-executive director, I confirm I have the time and I'm very committed to fulfilling my role in working with the oOh!media board and management team for the future. I look forward to your support today. Thank you.
Thanks, Philippa. Are there any questions relating to resolution two? If there are none, I will put this resolution to the meeting. As usual, detailed on the slide are the proxy votes. The directors, with Philippa abstaining, unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution. Please now record your vote on your voting card. Resolution three relates to the re-election of Joanne Pollard as a director. The board also strongly supports Jo's re-election as she contributes to the board with significant experience in marketing, sales, media, and digital technology. Jo will now say a few words.
Good afternoon, fellow shareholders. I'm delighted to offer myself for re-election to the oOh!media board. I've spent the last 35 years of my executive career in the media marketing industries in Australia, the U.K., the U.S., and Japan. I started my career in media agencies at a company called Mindshare and have also held senior roles as Group Executive of Media and Marketing at Telstra and Global Media Director of Digital and Content at Nike in the U.S. I've also been Chief Executive of NineMSN, Sales and Marketing Director at Nine Entertainment, and CEO of Publicis Mojo. I currently hold non-executive director roles in three other boards. From a listed perspective, it's Endeavour Group, where I'm also Chair of the People and Culture Committee; Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Limited, where I'm also Chair of the Nomination Committee; and from a private board perspective, I'm a non-executive director at Green Cross.
I continue to also have time to contribute to the Outdoor Media Board. I'm super passionate about the media industry and the growth opportunities ahead of us as a company. I look forward to your support today and working with the oOh!media Board and executives on continued growth in the future. Thank you.
Thank you, Jo. Any questions on resolution three? I'll now put that to the meeting. Proxies are up. The directors unanimously recommend in favor. Please record your vote on your voting card. Resolutions four and five relate 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. As we announced to the market on the 29th of April, these resolutions have been withdrawn. Resolution six relates to the renewal of the proportional takeover provisions in the company's constitution. The approval of shareholders is sought to renew the proportional takeover provisions in Rule Six of the company's constitution for a period of three years from the date of approval of this resolution.
This is a special resolution and requires 75% of votes in favour cast by members entitled to vote to be passed. Are there any questions on resolution six? In which case, I will put that to the meeting. The proxy votes are detailed. Directors unanimously recommend voting in favour. Please record your vote on your voting card. As there is no other business, I will now close the meeting. Please provide MUFG with your voting cards for those of you who are at the venue today. The results of the poll will be announced to the ASX later today. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank you for your support and for your attendance and your participation in this meeting. I now declare the meeting closed. Thanks.