By M4G Bureau - September 16, 2022
The Spanish OOH sector has shown exceptionally strong recovery following COVID and the market has the right dynamics for Wildstone’s continued rapid growth, says Damian Cox, Founder & Global CEO, Wildstone
Leading owner of outdoor media infrastructure Wildstone is continuing its rapid expansion across Europe with the announcement of its acquisition of Grupo Redext, a major industry player in Spain.
Redext’s national portfolio of large-format outdoor advertising assets includes static billboards and monoposts in major urban markets, as well as a selection of premium digital panels in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Malaga, Seville, Alicante and Zaragoza.
With this addition, Wildstone counts more than 5,000 billboards in its portfolio across the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, including state-of-the-art super-premium digital billboards located along major roads and motorways.
The company, founded by advertising veteran and serial entrepreneur Damian Cox in 2010, has accelerated the pace of its digital rollout by more than ten-fold in the last two years, and is on a mission to become the largest global billboard owner by leading the market transition from static to digital.
The acquisition marks Wildstone’s first investment since the August 2022 announcement of its sale to Antin Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure-focused European private equity firm.
The Wildstone management team has a proven track record of growing its portfolio by acquiring traditional paper panel assets and upgrading them to next-generation screen technology backed by long-term fixed income inflation-linked contracts.
“Spain represents an important strategic expansion opportunity for Wildstone,” said Cox, the company’s Founder and Global CEO. “The Spanish out-of-home sector has shown exceptionally strong recovery following COVID and the market has the right dynamics for Wildstone’s continued rapid growth. With this acquisition we are replicating the platform’s success in acquiring, upgrading and scaling our media infrastructure portfolio across the continent. This marks an important milestone in Wildstone’s international expansion.”
The UK and European OOH advertising market is at the early stages of transformation from paper panels to digital screens and its growth is on a fast upward trajectory. Industry experts predict that in five years, every panel in outdoor advertising that can be, will be digital. Wildstone has been at the forefront of the digital revolution in the sector and has shifted the focus of the entire industry away from paper to digital.
Southern Europe is an important focus for Wildstone, where digitisation is poised for accelerated growth, and Redext is at the forefront of the digitisation of outdoor media in Spain.
Cox added: “Redext was one of the early advocates for digital conversion, having launched its first digital panel back in 2014. In the UK, we have seen strong demand from our pan-European customers and we believe the time is right to invest in the digitisation of outdoor media in Spain.”
The experienced senior management team at Redext, led by CEO Jose Luis Duran, will continue to support the growth and digitisation strategy, both directly and through the emergence of a new media sales partner, Impact Out of Home.
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