JCDecaux SA, the number two outdoor advertising company worldwide, has announced 2009 revenues of €1,918.8 million, a decrease of -11.5% compared with 2008. Excluding acquisitions and the impact of foreign exchange, organic revenue decline was -10.9% reflecting a sharp contraction of advertising spending earlier this year as well as the high comparable organic revenue growth of +6.3% achieved by JCDecaux in 2008.

Transport (-6,3%) proved to be quite resilient whereas Street Furniture (-12,1%) suffered and Billboard (-17,1%) collapsed.

Europe (-16,7%), excluding France and the United Kingdom, performed mostly in line with the Group with the exception of Southern Europe where organic revenue declined by more than 20% mainly driven by the sharp economic contraction in Spain.

France (-8,7%) outperformed the Group with a high single-digit revenue decrease. The UK (-25,5%) declined the most in 2009, although business conditions improved in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Asia-Pacific (-6,7%) and North America (-6,5%) performed broadly in line with the Group in 2009, with Asia-Pacific reporting a significant sequential improvement in the fourth quarter of 2009 with low single-digit organic revenue growth. The Rest of the World (+66,6%) experienced strong revenue growth reflecting the Group’s successful development in new markets.

“2009 was undoubtedly the most difficult year that JCDecaux has experienced since the creation of the company in 1964. Reduced advertising budgets and strong pricing pressure led to a global advertising revenue decline – including online advertising – expected to be around 10% in 2009. After a clear outperformance in 2008 JCDecaux performed relatively in line with the market in 2009 with an organic revenue decline of 10.9%, ahead of our most recent guidance thanks to late money spent in the fourth quarter and increased exposure to emerging markets”, said Jean-François Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO.

The more positive advertiser sentiment reported in some markets since September seems to be holding into the first quarter of this year and given the easier comparables we are currently confident that JCDecaux can achieve positive organic revenue growth in Q1 2010.

However given the continuing low visibility it is unclear whether this is the beginning of a sustained advertising recovery and we continue to manage the company accordingly.”

He added that the Group is considering acquisitions of struggling companies in both the Europe and Asia-Pacific regions: “The crisis has been boosting consolidation of the industry, which is a good thing. There are too many companies out there with too much debt they cannot repay.”

JCDecaux already bought certain assets of Titan Outdoor UK earlier this month and in 2009 became the majority shareholder of German company Wall.