South Africa: Hlayisani-backed Tractor acquires boutique media company
Following a recent investment by private equity firm Hlayisani Capital, South African digital outdoor media company Tractor Media Holdings has announced the full acquisition of UrbanSigns, a leading out of home (OOH) media owner. Tractor first acquired 50% of UrbanSigns in 2018, and will now take over the rest of the business.
Ben Harris, managing director at Tractor, explains that upon the initial part-acquisition of UrbanSigns four years ago, a joint venture between the two businesses was launched – a separate entity called Urbantrac. Through merging the portfolios of both companies, clients were able to benefit from having access to multiple OOH locations and thus maximise their reach.
“With this latest move, we will now do away with Urbantrac and consolidate everything under the Tractor Outdoor umbrella. This will unlock significant value for our clients by adding 26 key sites to our Western Cape portfolio, extending our footprint and influence. Moreover, having complete autonomy will allow us greater opportunity to innovate, update and augment the portfolio as we go.”
Harris says that the Western Cape continues to yield exciting potential for media owners and advertisers. “The province’s outdoor media landscape is well-regulated and it sees a large number of tourists, business travellers and holidaymakers each year.
“There is a great demand for iconic, premium sites, and Cape Town is well-known for these. Thus it remains a core strategic focus within our national network of OOH and digital out of home (DOOH) inventory.”