JCDecaux H1 Financial Results

JCDecaux has released its half-year financial results

Robust revenue growth

• +3.4% reported growth to €1,868.3m revenue in half-year 2025, +3.3% organic growth
• +1.6% organic growth in Q2, c.+3% excluding the impact of the 2024 UEFA Euro and Paris Olympic Games, a record Q2  +12.2% digital revenue growth in half-year 2025, c.40% of Group revenue

Strong operating leverage

• +17.6% Operating Margin at €307.4m
• 75.8% flow-through rate (conversion of revenue increase to Operating Margin)
• +11.6% EBIT before impairment charge at €125.6m, +114.7% excluding non-recurring items  +10.7% Operating cash flows

Commenting on the 2025 half-year results, Jean-François Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said, “Thanks to our unique, and well diversified, premium OOH global media footprint, we have recorded in the first half of 2025 a robust revenue growth and a strong increase of our profitability in a challenging and uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment.

Our organic revenue growth reached +3.3% in H1 2025, despite a mid-single digit decline in China, including a +1.6% revenue growth in Q2, in line with our guidance, affected by a c.150bp negative comparison impact due to the 2024 UEFA Euro and Paris Olympic Games. Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH), the fastest-growing media segment, surged by +12.2% and now represents c.40% of our total revenue, with a substantial increase of +25.2% in our programmatic revenue now accounting for 10.1% of our DOOH revenue.

Leveraging our revenue growth and ongoing cost control, including adjusted contract terms particularly in China, we achieved double- digit growth of key operational indicators. Our Operating Margin increased by +17.6%, reaching 16.5% of revenue - a significant year- over-year improvement of 200bp, highlighting our strong operating leverage with 75.8% of the revenue growth flowing through the operating margin. EBIT before impairment charge grew by +11.6% at €125.6m, by +114.7% excluding non-recurring items, while operating cash flows rose by +10.7%.

As far as Q3 is concerned, we now expect a low single digit negative organic growth, taking into account a c.410bp negative comparison base impact linked to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and UEFA Euro events and no improvement in trading expected in China. However, compared to 2023, the organic growth is expected to be high single digit.

Finally, we sincerely thank our teams for their remarkable dedication and hard work, and our clients and partners for their continued trust.”

The values shown are generally expressed in millions of euros. The sum of the rounded amounts or variations calculations may differ, albeit to an insignificant extent, from the reported values.

Revenue

Our half year 2025 group revenue grew by +3.4%, +3.3% on an organic basis, to reach €1,868.3 million. Digital grew strongly by

+12.2% organically and now represents close to 40% of the total revenue, including +25.2% in programmatic revenue growth.

Our Q2 2025 performance was robust as OOH continued to gain market share in a context of economic and political uncertainties. Our group revenue grew by +1.6% on an organic basis, affected by a c.150bp negative comparison impact due to the 2024 UEFA Euro and Paris Olympic Games.

Our client base remains well diversified as our top 10 clients represented less than 13% of our total revenue.

Digital revenue

In Digital Out of Home (DOOH), the fastest-growing media segment, our revenue grew by +12.2% in half-year 2025, accounting for 39.6% of Group revenue and reaching 40.0% in Q2, a strong increase of 2.8 percentage points compared to the previous year. We continued to focus on the selective roll-out of digital screens in prime locations and the development of our data and programmatic capabilities.

Programmatic advertising revenues through the VIOOH SSP (supply-side platform), which include mostly incremental revenue from innovative dynamic data-driven campaigns and new advertisers, grew by +25.2% in half-year 2025 to reach €74.7 million i.e. 10.1% of our digital revenue. The DOOH programmatic ecosystem continued to gain traction, with the dynamism and the growing number of DSPs (demand-side platforms) connected to VIOOH (the most connected SSP of the OOH media industry with 52 DSPs connected) now active in 34 countries, including Displayce a DSP connected in 88 countries.

Revenue by activities

All activities grew in the first half of 2025.

Organically, Street Furniture grew by +4.3%, including +3.6% in Q2, with continued solid momentum, Transport grew by +3.2%, including +0.8% in Q2, reflecting the solid growth outside China, and Billboard was flat in H1, including -3.7% in Q2.

 Street Furniture

Half-year revenue increased by +4.3% on an organic basis (+3.7% to €952.0 million on a reported basis), with a continued solid sales momentum despite the high level of macroeconomic uncertainties. North America and Rest of the World grew double digit while France was solid with a mid-single digit growth despite the high comparison base related to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Q2 revenue increased by +3.6% on an organic basis (+2.4% to €529.4 million on a reported basis) year-on-year. North America grew double digit and France high-single digit.

 Transport

Half-year revenue increased by +3.2% on an organic basis (+3.9% to €658.3 million on a reported basis) year-on-year. North America grew double digit, while Rest of Europe and Rest of the World grew high single-digit.

Q2 revenue increased +0.8% on an organic basis (-0.7% to €343.4 million on a reported basis) year-on-year, affected by the decline in China and high comparison base for France and the UK. North America and Rest of the World grew double digit.

Transport remained affected by the low level of activity compared to pre-Covid in China, which declined mid-single digit year-on-year in H1 2025.

 Billboard

Half-year revenue was flat year-on-year on an organic basis (+0.8% at €258.0 million on a reported basis) mainly affected by high comparables in France and the UK, while the Australia and New-Zealand recorded a solid high single digit growth.

Q2 revenue decreased by -3.7% on an organic basis (-4.1% to €137.5 million on a reported basis) year-on-year.

Revenue by geographic areas

North America and Rest of the World were the fastest-growing geographies in H1 2025. UK declined by 2.9% year-on-year from a high comparison basis (+29.8% organic growth in H1 2024). Asia-Pacific grew by 1.3% in organic despite a mid-single digit decline in China which now represents 10% of our revenue vs 18% pre-covid.

Analysis of half-year 2025 key financial figures

Leveraging our robust revenue growth and ongoing cost control, including adjusted contract terms particularly in China, we achieved double-digit growth across key operational indicators: operating margin +17.6%, EBIT before impairment charge +11.6% (+114.7% excluding non-recurring items) and operating cash flows +10.7%.

Operating Margin

Our operating margin increased by +17.6% year-on-year including margin improvement across all segments, highlighting our strong operating leverage as 75.8% of the revenue increase flowed through the operating margin.

For the first half 2025, our operating margin improved by €46.0 million to reach €307.4 million (vs €261.4 million in H1 2024), a +17.6% increase year-on-year, well above the revenue growth. The operating margin as a percentage of revenue reached 16.5%, +200bp above prior year, with increasing margins across all business segments.

Street Furniture: In the first half of 2025, operating margin increased by €17.6 million to €216.5 million. As a percentage of revenue, the operating margin was 22.7%, an improvement of +100bp compared to prior year driven by a robust revenue growth and an opex base which remained close to flat.

Transport: In the first half of 2025, operating margin increased by €26.1 million to €62.9 million. As a percentage of revenue, the operating margin was 9.6%, a strong increase of +380bp year-on-year driven by a robust revenue growth globally, despite revenue decline in China, and thanks to adjusted contract terms particularly in China.

Billboard: In the first half of 2025, operating margin increased by €2.3 million to €28.1 million. As a percentage of revenue, the operating margin was 10.9%, +80bp above prior year, despite a flat revenue growth thanks to good control on our cost base.

EBIT (4)

In the first half of 2025, our EBIT grew by +6.2% to reach €126.3 million, including a positive impact of +€0.7 million (vs +€6.4 million in H1 2024) of the net impairment on tangible and intangible assets and a negative comparison base impact linked to the capital gain from the sale of part of our stake in APG|SGA for €45.2 million in H1 2024. Our EBIT excluding non-recurring items grew by +114.7% to reach €88.7 million, driven by the increase in the operating margin.

Our EBIT margin before impairment charge reached 6.7% of revenue +50bp vs H1 2024, +300bp excluding the capital gain from the sale of part of our stake in APG|SGA.

Net Financial Income / Charge, IFRS (5)

In the first half of 2025, net financial result was broadly stable a limited €0.5 million negative variation vs H1 2024 amounting to -€64.4 million, including -€35.3 million financial interests on IFRS 16 lease liabilities and -€29.1 million other net financial charges.

Equity Affiliates, IFRS

In the first half of 2025, the share of net profit from equity affiliates was €19.0 million compared to €13.8 million during the first half of 2024, an increase of €5.1 million reflecting the improvement in the overall operational performance of our affiliates, including adjusted contract terms in China.

Net Income Group Share, IFRS

In the first half of 2025, our net income Group after impairment decreased by €18.5 million to €75.9 million compared to €94.4 million in H1 2024. Our net income Group share before impairment amounts to €76.4 million, a decrease by €13.5 million compared to H1 2024, but

+86.1% year-on-year excluding non-recurring items (such as APG I SGA capital gain in H1 2024).

Capital Expenditure

In the first half of 2025, net capex (acquisition of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets, net of disposals of assets) decreased by -15.6% year-on-year at €118.8 million, i.e. 6.4% of revenue vs 7.8% in H1 2024. Digital represented 39.9% of net capex.

Free Cash Flow (6)

Operating cash flows (7) increased by €14.9 million (+10.7%) year-on-year in the first half of 2025, reaching €153.7 million. This growth was mainly driven by the improvement in operating margin. It was partially offset by higher net financial interest paid (€10.9 million), due to a timing difference between interest received and paid, higher income tax payments (€11.7 million), reflecting improved performance, and a reduction in dividends received—primarily from APG|SGA—following the partial sale of our stake in 2024.

Free cash flow before change in working capital requirement increased by €36.8 million, turning positive, whereas it was slightly negative in the first half of 2024.

While a negative free cash flow is usual at this time of year due to the seasonality of our activity, timing differences in working capital requirement as of the end of June 2025 negatively impacted it, to reach        -€64.9 million in H1 2025. These timing effects mainly include a lower use of factoring (for c.-€25 million), lower payables linked to inventory and capex decreases and temporary shifts in client payments between end of Q2 and beginning of Q3.

Net Debt (8)

Our financial structure is very solid as our financial net debt decreased by €43.9 million vs June 30th, 2024, amounting to €912.9 million as of June 30th, 2025. Compared to December 31st, 2024, net debt increased by €156.6 million, mainly due to the seasonality of our activity and to the dividend distribution to shareholders. We have a strong liquidity profile with €1.0 billion in cash, €825 million in confirmed revolving credit facility, undrawn with a maturity in 2030 and no bond repayment before 2028.

Dividend

The dividend of €0.55 per share for the 2024 financial year, approved at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on May 14th, 2025, was paid on May 21st, 2025, for a total amount of €117.7 million.