OOUT.L Regulatory News (OOUT)

10 January 2020

Ocean Outdoor Limited

("Ocean" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Ocean Appoints Aryeh B. Bourkoff as Co-Chairman alongside Tom Goddard

Ocean Outdoor Limited, a leading operator of premium Digital Out-of-Home ("DOOH") advertising in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Nordics and Germany, today announces the appointment of Aryeh B. Bourkoff as Co-Chairman of the Board of the Company, effective immediately. Tom Goddard will continue to serve as Ocean's Co-Chairman.

Since the acquisition of Ocean by Ocelot in March 2018, the Company has executed its plan, achieving strong organic revenue and EBITDA growth while also completing six accretive acquisitions in the UK, Netherlands and the Nordics, significantly increasing the size of the business and geographic diversification. However, the Board believes that the Company's stock price does not currently reflect this business performance and strategy. The Board intends to take various steps to address shareholder returns, and the appointment of Mr. Bourkoff to Co-Chairman is representative of Ocean's seriousness to enact these measures immediately. 

Commenting, Mr. Bourkoff said: "As one of Ocean's largest shareholders through LionTree and personally, I am a strong believer in the prospects for significant value creation, and continue to be enthusiastic about the Company's strong operating performance and M&A execution. However, 2020 marks an important inflection point for the Company to address its public market issues. I firmly believe that the stock continues to be fundamentally undervalued. My key focus as Co-Chairman will be to propel both current and new investor support to bring the Company's stock to a level that we all believe represents a fair valuation. In partnership with the Board and Management we will explore all value creation opportunities available to the Company."

Mr. Goddard said: "Working with Aryeh as Co-Chair will be an exciting prospect and we come into the new year energised and focussed on unlocking the true value of the business for all stakeholders."

Separately, Andrew Miller has resigned from the Board of the Company as an independent non-executive Director with effect from 31 December 2019. Mr. Miller's resignation is a result of a possible conflict of interest arising from Ocean's acquisition of AdCityMedia and Visual Art in 2019. The Board thanks Mr. Miller for his work as a Director of Ocean, and in particular for his leadership of the Audit Committee during his tenure.

Pending the appointment of a new independent non-executive Director to the Board, Sangeeta Desai has been appointed as Chair of the Audit Committee, and Martin Soderstrom has been appointed as a member of the Audit Committee.

Ocean will be releasing its full year 2019 trading update on 18 February 2020. The Company is pleased to report that for the full year 2019, it expects to announce results for the UK and NL businesses that are ahead of the high single digit revenue guidance previously communicated.

About Aryeh B. Bourkoff

Mr. Bourkoff has served as a non-executive director of the company since the formation of Ocelot (the vehicle that acquired Ocean) in March 2017, in which LionTree was a founder. Mr. Bourkoff is the Founder and CEO of LionTree LLC, an international investment and merchant banking firm, with a focus on technology, media, telecom and the creative digital economy. Since 2012, under Mr. Bourkoff's leadership, LionTree, which has offices in New York, London, San Francisco and Paris, has advised clients on over $500 billion of transactions by enterprise value.

Prior to launching LionTree, Aryeh served as Vice Chairman and Head of Americas Investment Banking at UBS and on the UBS Investment Banking Executive Committee. During his 13-year tenure at UBS, Aryeh held a number of senior positions including Joint Global Head of Telecom, Media and Technology Investment Banking; and Head of the Media and Communications Research Group.

Aryeh is also the Founder of Kindred Media, a media and podcasting business powered by LionTree. He serves on the board of Carnegie Hall, the Royal Academy of Arts, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Additionally, Mr. Bourkoff is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Paley Center for Media, the New York Philanthropic Advisory Board of UNICEF, and is Co-Chair of the University of California San Diego Campaign Cabinet. 

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About Ocean Outdoor

Ocean Outdoor operates some of the most prestigious digital out-of-home (DOOH) locations in the UK, Northern and Continental Europe.

The Ocean portfolio features the UK's most iconic DOOH locations including the BFI IMAX; the Landsec Piccadilly Lights and a significant presence in the top 12 UK cities. Ocean's portfolio of high-profile landlords and partners includes Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Southampton City Councils, Landsec, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the BFI and intu.

In the UK, a continued focus on Ocean's Digital Cities for Digital Citizens philosophy has significantly augmented the Group's position as an operator of high quality DOOH assets. Ocean continues to deliver good organic development through new City tender wins, the rollout of new locations in Scotland, London, the West Midlands and Manchester and significant screen investment.

Strategic acquisitions that complement the existing DOOH portfolio remain a strategic pillar of the growth programme. This continued with three Dutch acquisitions in spring 2019, giving the company a significant share of the Netherlands market where it has become a major DOOH player. These subsidiaries have since been rebranded as Ocean Netherlands.

In September 2019, Ocean made a further acquisition, buying out the assets of Visual Art, a Sweden based independent, pure-play DOOH media and tech group which operates in three Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) and key cities in Germany.

This transaction expands Ocean's portfolio across 23 Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield shopping malls in Europe, in addition to holding the exclusive external rights to two of the largest premium urban shopping malls in Europe: Westfield London and Westfield Stratford in the UK.