Landmark Infrastructure is seeking to purchase easements under billboard sites. I’ve seen several Landmark easement transactions and have been hearing the outdoor company landlords are being approached by Landmark. Remember the proverb about having a long spoon when you sup with the devil? Here are five reasons to be careful […]
Author: Dave Westburg
What’s a safe level of debt for an outdoor company?
Lenders will advance up to 6.0 times cashflow (earnings before interest depreciation and amortization) to outdoor advertising companies. I think a safe level of debt for most outdoor companies is about 2.0 times gross revenue or 4.0 times cash-flow. This level is safe because it gives your company the financial […]
Billboard Loan and Lease Repayment Terms
Billboard loan and lease repayment terms vary from 3 to 20 years. 3-7 years is normal for lease financing and digital sign financing. The most advantageous leasing tax treatment occurs only if a lease has a term of less than 75% of an asset’s life. That means a lease of […]
New Billboard Insider website is launched.
Today marks the launch of Billboard Insider (www.billboardinsider.com) a website devoted to news and analysis of the billboard and digital sign business. The online magazine will fill the void in outdoor industry specific news and analysis caused by the demise of Outdoor Magazine and Out of Home Advertising. Billboard Insider […]
Badly Maintained Billboards Are Bad Business
We are our own worst enemy when we don’t take care of our billboards. Here’s a recent letter to the editor of the Trumbull Times in Connecticut. “To the Editor: I’m writing to complain about a terrible blight issue right here in the Long Hill section of Trumbull. I am […]
High Resolution Digital Billboards Becoming More Popular
A couple weeks ago a digital sign sales executive told me that high resolution 16 mil digital billboards are outselling lower resolution 20 mil digital billboards by a ratio of 8:1. I’ve asked digital sign sales people why and they’ve told me that costs have fallen to the point where […]
Two nevers when negotiating a lease or an easement.
Landlords and easement companies are being more aggressive about adding onerous clauses t0 leases and easements. Here are two nevers when negotiating a lease or an easement. Never agree to give your billboard to the landlord or easement holder when the lease expires or terminates. A steel monopole billboard has […]
Outdoor Billboard Electricity Costs
I finance static billboards, trivisions and digital signs. Here are my estimates of what it costs per month to light a billboard based on a review of my own records and discussions with sign manufacturers: Two Sided Static 14 by 48 billboard – $100/month. Two Sided 14 by 48 Trivision […]
Outdoor Values June 2015
Public company valuations declined by about 4% during the second quarter of 2015 as can be seen in the Table Below. The three large public outdoor companies were valued at 4.3 times revenue and 13.6 times cash-flow at June 30, 2015. Clear Channel trades at a much lower valuation than […]
Five Questions for Matt Schulze, Selective Structures
Matt Schulze is a partner at Selective Structures, an Athens Tennessee company which fabricates and installs sign poles, billboards, scoreboards and digital signs. Selective Structures annually fabricates over 1000 billboards each year. You can contact Matt at [email protected], 706-473-3250. 1. Matt, how did you get in the outdoor business? My first media sales job […]
