Deal makes PML biggest poster firm

Irish-owned outdoor advertising specialist PML has acquired the Dublin-based operation of Posterscope, a UK out-of-home poster management business.

The deal makes PML the biggest outdoor poster specialist in the Republic with a 46 per cent share of the near €100 million market, according to its owner and managing director Jimmy Cashen.

Staff and clients of both companies were informed about the merger yesterday. Mr Cashen said no cash was involved in the deal. Instead, Posterscope is taking a "small single-digit" percentage stake in the enlarged business. He declined to put a value on PML as a result of this move.

The out-of-home market comprises everything from 48-sheet billboard posters, to bus and rail shelter advertising, wraparounds on telephone kiosks, ads on the side of buses and taxis, beer mats and poster ads in shopping centres.

PML will now be the biggest player in the market in the Republic, ahead of Poster Plan, which is part of the WPP global communications group, and Magna Outdoor. Posterscope's seven staff will join PML's Dublin office, which has 28 employees. PML also has 17 inspectors regularly checking outdoor sites.

Posterscope executive Michael O'Mahony will become commercial and marketing director of PML, having previously worked for the company.

Mr Cashen has also set up a new subsidiary called Source Out of Home Ireland to handle some of the group's business.

Based in London, Posterscope has offices in 20 countries and global billings of $2 billion (€1.384 billion). It is the biggest out-of-home player in the UK market and is quoted on the stock exchange.

The deal has been in the pipeline for about 12 months.

Mr Cashen said Posterscope had originally offered to buy PML but he was not interested in selling. "We're taking over a piece of a UK company when the trend is usually the other way," he told The Irish Times.

PML also operates in the North, employing nine people in Belfast. Mr Cashen estimates that the group will now have a 62 per cent share of the all-Ireland outdoor market, which is thought to be worth about €125 million annually.