JCDecaux profits fall 77%

JCDecaux has reported a 77% fall in profits for 2009, to £22 million, with revenue down 11.5% year on year to £1.7 billion.

Operating profits were down by 28.7% to £357 million, with organic revenue down 10.9%. The group’s operating margin was 20.4%, down from 25.4% in 2008.

The company’s billboard business saw operating profits fall 46.1% year on year,while transport fell 32.6% and street furniture down 24.8%.

Jean-François Decaux, chairman of the executive board and co-CEO, said: “Faced with the worst advertising downturn on record, JCDecaux implemented a successful cost reduction program which helped reduce the impact on our margin and coupled with a selective investment strategy also ensured that the group delivered improved free cash flow for the year.

“The performance of our teams around the world and the robustness and adaptability of our business model underpinned these results and enabled us to clearly outperform most of our direct competitors.

“The more positive advertiser sentiment we reported in January 2010 has continued during the first quarter of this year and we currently anticipate that JCDecaux can achieve positive organic revenue growth of around 5% in Q1 2010.”