I had a previous relationship with OUTFRONT and really respect their team and company as a whole. We initially discussed a management deal for them to market the assets but they ultimately pursued an outright purchase. I was really pleased with the offer and it simply made sense for both parties. Although OUTFRONT has the best, high profile assets in the San Antonio market – they surprisingly didn’t have any digital units. This was a real win / win as it gave them the ability to now sell digital alongside their other bulletins. I kept all my existing inventory statewide and my static bulletins I already own in San Antonio market – I only sold these two signs (four digital units in Hollywood Park). Ultimately, this gave me a good amount of capital I can deploy into new builds and acquisitions. I’m currently in the process of installing multiple digital units in the San Antonio market and am really excited to get those up and running later this month. I also have other digital units I’ll be installing in other Texas markets in 2021.
What was it like selling during Covid?
Considering this all occurred during COVID I am really pleased with how the buyer (Outfront) stuck with the deal and made it a priority. For such a large company, they made the process very personable and smooth. Jay Sitta the GM who runs both Houston and San Antonio markets for Outfront is a friend of mine and I really respect him and his team. In the end I brought in Max Drachman @ Kalil to help with the final negotiations and closing, in fact, we didn’t engage any other potential buyers for these assets, we just worked with OUTFRONT all the way to the closing. I can’t say enough good things about Max Drachman, he simply knows everyone in the business and works really hard to get a deal done. Max really helped get us across the finish line in a challenging time as COVID definitely made things slower. Again, both Max and OUTFRONT were great to work with and I’d definitely do it all over again.
Is the market returning to normal?
Max @ Kalil could probably answer this better than I can, but in my experience, I feel like 2021 looks to be a robust year in terms of deal flow. The bigger players all seem to be back at it in terms of deploying Capex and M&A. My personal opinion is 2021 will return to a relatively normal, pre-COVID level in terms of deals, multiples, etc – especially when you have high profile assets that are next to impossible to replicate.
