2022 shareholder meeting: Ströer at the start of a long growth cycle thanks to digitalization of out-of-home advertising

The shareholder meeting of Ströer SE & Co. KGaA, which was held in Cologne, Germany, on June 22, 2022, voted in favor of nearly all of the motions of the Supervisory Board and Board of Management by the necessary majority. Around 48 million no-par-value shares – around 85% of Ströer SE & Co. KGaA’s share capital – were represented at the shareholder meeting. ‪OOH+ strategy, which combines the core OOH business with the related business segments Digital & Dialog Media and DaaS & ECommerce, the Company has demonstrated that it is crisis-proof and robust – even during challenging periods.

“Despite all the external and macroeconomic challenges, our Company has never been as well positioned as it is today,” said Christian Schmalzl, Co-CEO of Ströer, during his speech at this year’s shareholder meeting. “While we cannot change the wider geopolitical picture, we can and will outperform our close competitors nonetheless. And we are optimally placed to do so.”

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, out-of-home advertising is at the start of a growth cycle of at least ten years that is being driven by the ongoing, accelerated digitalization of advertising spaces. This is particularly evident from the fact that digital out-of-home advertising business has doubled over the past two quarters, despite a certain amount of fallout from the pandemic. “Advertising customers are increasingly making use of this medium, which can be deployed flexibly and managed more precisely. Ströer’s three decades or so of structural market growth is now paying off,” states Schmalzl.

The second reason for the positive outlook is that the PLUS businesses – dialogue marketing and digital marketing solutions – have performed very well overall. They not only support Ströer’s core out-of-home advertising business but also operate separately and independently of out-of-home advertising. This is illustrated by t-online, the news portal with the greatest reach in Germany. It reaches almost 50 million people – more than half of the German population – every month. “Since 2017, following the restructuring, the portal has won over more and more people with the quality of its journalism and established itself as an outlet for all kinds of content in the fields of general interest, news, entertainment, and sport. The value of the investment at that time has tripled over the past five years,” reports Schmalzl.

It was actually back in 2012 that Ströer decided to proactively invest in digitalization and diversify its business. Although critics occasionally took a dim view of the strategy, “the Company has been rewarded for its courageous business decisions and shareholders are now benefiting from the potential for monetization offered by Asam and, above all, Statista,” says Schmalzl. He goes on to explain that offers for the global DaaS provider in the past twelve months have valued it at between EUR 1.0b and EUR 1.8b.

At the shareholder meeting, around 98 percent voted in favor of the proposal of the Supervisory Board and general partner to pay a dividend of EUR 2.25 per dividend-bearing no-par-value share.

Disclaimer

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" regarding Ströer SE & Co. KGaA ("Ströer") or the Ströer Group, including assessments, estimates and forecasts regarding the financial position, business strategy, plans and objectives of management and the future business activities of Ströer or the Ströer Group. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the results of operations, profitability, performance or achievements of Ströer or the Ströer Group to be materially different from any future results of operations, profitability, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and are based on numerous assumptions that may also prove to be incorrect. Ströer makes no representation and assumes no liability with respect to the fair presentation, completeness, correctness, adequacy or accuracy of the information and assessments contained herein. The information contained in this press release is subject to change without notice. It may be incomplete or abbreviated and may not contain all material information relating to Ströer or the Ströer Group. Ströer does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or other information contained herein, neither as a result of new information, future events nor otherwise.