I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. James Taylor, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Appreciate you joining us for oOh!media's 2026 half year results. It's clearly been a significant period for oOh! following last week's announcement that we entered into a binding scheme implementation agreement with I Squared Capital, under which shareholders will receive total cash consideration of AUD 1.70 per share, including the AUD 0.02 fully franked interim dividend. The transaction represents a significant outcome for shareholders at a 100% premium to the undisturbed closing price of AUD 0.85 per share on the 28th of April 2026. It's also a strong vote of confidence in oOh! Our market leading out-of-home network, our people, and the opportunities ahead. oOh! has built an impressive portfolio of out-of-home media assets in a structurally growing market. I Squared clearly sees the strength of the business today, the infrastructure-like qualities of our network, and the opportunity to create further value from us.
There's still a formal process ahead, including shareholder, regulatory, and court approvals. Throughout that process, our job remains unchanged. Keep executing, keep delivering for our customers and partners, and keep improving the performance of the business. I'll start with a short overview of the half, the broader out-of-home market, and the operational progress we've made. Chris will then take you through the financial results. I'll return to cover the outlook, including the strong momentum we're seeing into the second half before we move to questions. There are four key points I want to draw out up front to provide important context for our first half results. Firstly, the structural story for out-of-home remains very strong. The sector grew 6.3% in the first half and has now reached a record 16.9% of agency media spend on a last 12-month basis. Secondly, our own first half financial results were below our expectations.
While group revenue increased 1.4% to AUD 340.9 million, the mix of that revenue and the timing of our investment in new contracts put significant pressure on earnings. We traded through a difficult macro environment, particularly through the second quarter. The Middle East conflict, three RBA rate increases, and extremely weak consumer sentiment all affected advertising confidence, particularly across billboards and airports, both for us and the industry. Thirdly, we've been deliberate about controlling what we can control and continued our focus on execution. Since I joined oOh! eight months ago, we've sharpened the strategy, delivered the first tranche of our operational excellence program, exited the reo retail media business, and implemented the new audience measurement system. These actions have unlocked more than AUD 12 million in annualized savings, including approximately AUD 3 million of CapEx.
Fourthly, and importantly, the momentum going into the second half is fundamentally stronger than the first, as evidenced by strong Q3 pacing at around +14% in Australia, with bookings well ahead of prior years, and the fixed cost leverage of the business starting to work more positively. We acknowledge the first half for what it was and firmly believe the principal drivers were timing and operational leverage rather than a deterioration in the structural opportunity. The reason we remain confident is due to the continuing power of out-of-home. The sector remains one of the strongest structural growth stories in media. It is taking share from other media channels because it offers something increasingly scarce. Large-scale audience reach in real-world environments. The category continues to become more sophisticated through digitization, data, and audience measurement.
As you can see on this chart, out-of-home's share of agency media spend has risen again to 16.9% today. oOh!media is uniquely positioned within that growth, and the new audience measurement system, MOVE, is now making the quality and reach of our multi-format assets substantially more visible to advertisers. That is the structural opportunity we are focused on converting into stronger returns. With that context, let me turn to what we delivered operationally through the first half before Chris takes you through the numbers. There has been a considerable amount of execution behind these results, with the team delivering on the commitments we made at our full-year results in February and again at our AGM in May.
We are already seeing the benefit of major net additions. Sydney Metro continues to build. Melbourne Metro Tunnel is now onboarded, and we have expanded our digital footprint across retail. The retail format is particularly encouraging.
Australian retail grew 4% in the half and returned to growth for the first time in six halves . That reflects improved audience measurement, additional digital inventory, and a targeted new go-to-market approach. On strategic execution, the operational excellence program, which I spoke to you about in May, has now delivered more than AUD 10 million of annualized benefits, and we are confident that we will deliver a further AUD 1 million-AUD 2 million of annualized benefits. As promised in May, we have also deployed cross-network planning capability across our major formats. We have integrated industry audience measurement directly into our enterprise systems. We have implemented a new sales incentive program effective from July this year. These changes, taken together, shorten the time and cost of getting assets in the ground and the cost to operate and maintain them. They make us faster to respond to client briefs.
They allow us to better deploy revenue across our asset base. They align sales activity to desirable commercial outcomes. Finally, we have commenced reshaping the portfolio. In the first half, this included the decision to exit our retail media business, reo. We completed the shuttering of that business in the half, creating AUD 2 million of annualized savings by the 30th of June. Following the Auckland Transport transition, the New Zealand cost base is now being reset. These were commitments we made earlier in the year. We updated you at our AGM in May, and we have delivered on them. I will now hand over to Chris to take you through the financial results in more detail.
Thank you, James, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 10. I will now walk you through the revenue composition as revenue mix was a key contributor to our first half earnings. Australian revenue increased 6% to AUD 340.9 million, with group revenue growing at 1% as we comp against the weaker New Zealand results without the Auckland Transport contribution. Within Australia, all formats grew other than billboards, which largely has a fixed rent base. Billboards was the format most exposed to the deterioration in advertiser confidence through the first half, particularly in brand-led categories, and it was cycling a strong prior period. As mentioned, all other formats grew across the half within Australia, reflecting the introduction of new premium assets, including the Melbourne Metro Tunnel and Waverley Council, and a renewed advertiser interest in our Office and Study portfolio.
Importantly, our Australian market share was flat during the first half at 36%, as well on a rolling 12-month basis. On slide 11, a gross profit waterfall outlines that there was a decline in gross profit, and gross margin declined by 4.3 percentage points versus the corresponding first half. This below-expectations performance was largely a function of the combination of adverse revenue mix with the decline in largely fixed rent billboard revenues and continued growth in airports, which carries a high variable rent. Additionally, a step-up in rents attached to the high-profile new contracts such as Transurban did not have the initial overall portfolio benefit as quickly as we would have expected. Lastly, as mentioned earlier, the business is comping against a legacy, highly profitable Auckland Transport contract, noting that this headwind will ameliorate in the fourth quarter of this year.
As James touched on earlier, and we will return to in the outlook statement, we are seeing a substantially stronger top-line performance in the third quarter, including mix improvements. This and the slowing down in fixed rent growth will contribute to a significantly better drop-through and gross margins in the second half as the business benefits from its fixed cost savings. Turning to our profit and loss statement on slide 12. The underlying Adjusted EBITDA decline of AUD 14 million versus the prior first half was predominantly driven by the gross profit decline addressed on the earlier slide. The half included AUD 7.4 million of non-operating items. These primarily related to the implementation costs attached to our operational excellence programs, including redundancy and consultancy costs. Additionally, we incurred one-off costs in completing the reo exit, retiring legacy technology systems, and the private equity bidding process transaction-related cost.
Adjusted underlying NPAT was AUD 15.4 million. As mentioned in the prior slide, an improved gross profit and margin outlook in the second half is expected to compound at the EBITDA and EBITDA margin level, especially when considering the cost-out actions taken late in the first half, which James outlined earlier. Turning to the cash flow on slide 13. Cash conversion was strong in the first half, with operating cash flows of AUD 14 million, representing 98% of Adjusted EBITDA. Capital expenditure was broadly stable at AUD 24.8 million and reflects a continued investment in digitization, new contracts, and network growth. As noted in the appendices, gearing was at 1.0x as at 30 June, consistent with our target. I will now hand back to James to take you through the outlook.
Thanks, Chris. The trading environment we are seeing in H2 is materially different to the first half. Australian Q3 media revenue is currently pacing at approximately 14%. At group level, that equates to 9%, reflecting the continued year-on-year impact of Auckland Transport in New Zealand. The forward indicators are particularly encouraging. Importantly, the strength is broad-based rather than being driven by one or two customers or categories. There is a network component to this as well. The new assets we have invested in are building contribution, including Transurban, and additional premium inventory comes into market later in the year. At the same time, the rate of fixed rent growth begins to normalize. That combination is important for operating leverage. Our current expectation is for CY 2026 CapEx of between AUD 40 million and AUD 50 million, largely funding new advertising assets and subject to development approvals.
We expect gearing to remain within our target range. Our confidence for half two is based on what we can actually see in the forward book. We expect a materially stronger second half. That concludes our formal presentation for today. Chris and I are now happy to take any questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speaker phone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Entcho Raykovski with E&P.
Morning, James. Morning, Chris.
Morning, sir.
Hi. My first question is just around the special divvy that you've proposed as part of the transaction. I'm just curious why that's being limited to AUD 0.10 per share. Obviously, it releases AUD 0.04 per share of franking credits. But I think you've got over AUD 0.16 of credits accrued on your balance sheet, and so arguably, you've got scope to release more. My question is, why have you elected not to go a bit harder on that special divvy? Was it funding constraints which prevented you or something else? I've got a couple of others. Do you want them now or maybe wait for the answer to this one?
Sure. Entcho, the AUD 0.10 special divvy was an outcome that was agreed with the bidder.
Okay. Got it. I suppose, are you able to say whether there was. Because it feels like you've got maybe some control rather over what you can do and the quantum of that dividend. Was it something that was explored as being a little bit higher than that now, given that franking credit balance?
Yeah. Entcho, franking credits is part of the component. You've touched another, which is impact on debt, and it's also about available distributable profits around the various entities. All those three things went into the mix to arrive at that outcome, which we jointly agreed with I Squared Capital.
Okay. Got it. Second question, also related to the bid, but also today's result. I think you've got a material adverse change definition in the scheme implementation agreement that includes an EBITDA threshold of AUD 115 million. Looks like you've got to be above that number for FY26. I am just conscious that we've just seen a first-half EBITDA decline. It is down by over 22%, and that sort of trajectory would take you below the AUD 115 million number for the full year. I mean, granted, second half has started much better. I suppose, can you talk about what the gross margin profile looks like in the second half, just the level of comfort that you can deliver second-half earnings growth, given the much better revenue trajectory?
Yeah, sure. Entcho, thank you for that. We are very comfortable in terms of that MAC clause. As you well know, we are very much a fixed cost, top-line-driven business. You've got stronger pacing going into third quarter. We are halfway through the quarter now. Also don't ignore the cost out that we took in the first half. To give you an idea of what that momentum does to our business, our July EBITDA is actually more than double last July's. As we in fact said on this call, there is significant favorable fixed cost levers coming into our second half results with July already behind us, and August is going to be the same.
Okay. Got it. Clearly, you signed the agreement knowing what the first half numbers were going to look like. Were I Squared Capital also aware of, subject to confidentiality arrangements, what one H looked like when they committed to the bid?
You can assume, Entcho, there was very thorough due diligence done of both our historic and our forward numbers, which is why we're very confident in the nature of the agreement that we struck. Just something else to pick up on as well, Auckland Transport, obviously, we're not comping against that in the fourth quarter, and that was a material contributor to our first half decline on the PCP.
Okay. Got it. That's clear. Just a final one. Your material contracts, again, sorry to focus on this, but there's a lot of investor interest in the transaction, obviously. Do any of your material contracts have change of control provisions? If so, does their contribution exceed the AUD 25 million GP threshold? Again, I'm referring to the agreement and material contracts termination, which is required in order to trigger the MAC.
Yeah. So look, we're not going to get into the specifics, obviously, for commercial rationale. But firstly, we are very comfortable with the MAC clause that we agreed with the bidder. Just as you well know, we don't have any single contract bigger than 5% of our revenue base. As you also would expect that, and is the history of the business, generally, those contracts that have the most significant revenue are the lower gross margin contribution, which is why we're pretty comfortable with that MAC.
Okay. That's great. Thank you.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. We will just pause for a moment to allow questioners to enter the queue. That is star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced for any questions. Your next question comes from Fraser McLeish with MST Marquee.
Hi, James and Chris. I just want to say up front, well done on getting the agreement you have got. Obviously, big uplift to what the equity market was valuing the business at. My question is just, again, on that second half and that margin profile, just to. I know hopefully it is not relevant what our forecasts end up being for the year, but just want to try and fine-tune them a bit. Can you get margins in the second half from everything you are seeing, gross margins I am talking about, sort of back up to where they were in the second half of last year after adjusting for Auckland? Is that the sort of profile achievable? Thanks.
Well, look, we are not going to give specific guidance. The key thing that you knocked out there is Auckland, and it is going to be a function of mix as well. If we continue to have favorable mix, especially in terms of performance of our billboard, then we should be able to get pretty close.
Sorry, are you saying your mix has turned more favorable in Q3?
Yes. I'm saying if billboard continues to be a strong driver of growth in the second half and we continue to see the momentum we're getting in Office and Study, although they're not big on the revenue line, they're very helpful on a gross margin line. We're going to have a substantially, obviously better gross margin than we've had in the first half. Fraser?
Okay, great. Appreciate it.
There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Taylor for closing remarks.
Well, thank you all for your time and attention, and we look forward to seeing you all soon.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.