Clear Channel Independent gets new name, new owner

Independent News & Media (South Africa) now owns 100% of Clear Channel Independent - Africa's largest outdoor advertising company, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Since 2001, Independent News & Media (INM) had owned a 50% stake in Clear Channel Independent, in a joint venture with Clear Channel Outdoor, a US-based operator with interests in radio and outdoor, which owned the other 50%.

The company's new trading name, in both South Africa and Africa, is INM Outdoor (Pty) Ltd, and it will be branded as INM Outdoor, with the payoff line "Africa's Outdoor Advertising Specialist".

The transaction will allow the South Africa business to prioritise its long awaited holding company BEE deal in the near future, according to a statement from INM Outdoor.

Independent News & Media (South Africa) -- a subsidiary of Independent News & Media, Sir Anthony O'Reilly's newspaper and communications group -- publishes various online sites, magazines and newspapers, including The Star.

The rebranding exercise involves the rebranding of some 45,000 assets, said Bazil Lauryssen, managing director of INM Outdoor.

INM Outdoor is Africa's largest billboard advertising company commanding approximately 45% of the South African billboard market (according to AC Nielsen's Adex) and operating in a further 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa inclusive of Mauritius and the newly established Madagascar market.