Laqshya Media eyes Rs 1,000 cr topline by 2025 as OOH market recovers post Covid

The company, which had clocked Rs 500 crore in topline before Covid-19 hit, had witnessed a massive slump in business during the pandemic.

However, managing director Alok Jalan told ET that the business has seen a resurgence.

“OOH market has recovered, and we are almost at a pre-pandemic level in terms of revenue, maybe 85-90%. We are targeting Rs 1,000 crore topline by 2025 and a growth rate of 20-25% CAGR over the next few years,” Jalan said.

Laqshya Media was started by Jalan in 1997 with an initial investment of Rs 1 lakh.

Today, the company has offices in 17 cities in 17 states and services 3,000 cities and towns in India.

Jalan said that Laqshya is now going to be actively looking at acquisition targets as he believes the market is too fragmented and needs consolidation.

“We are open to like-minded people and good opportunities, but it should make sense for both parties, and I’m always open to investments for collaboration for consolidation, because ultimately that will create value,” Jalan said.

He added that now that he owns 100% of the company after giving exit to the PE funds in 2020, Laqshya will also be looking at either raising funds in the near future or listing the company after two years.

“We may look at some fundraising in the near future, or we may look at the listing of the company in a couple of years, depending on where we are at that point of time and what kind of requirement we have,” said Jalan.

The company has three main lines of business—OOH, experiential and events, and digital.

“Currently, the revenue split is 80:20 in OOH and other businesses, and we want to change that. So, we also look at combining these three services for any client because that also creates a lot of value,” Jalan said.

He pointed out that many people have said in the past that OOH media will not only survive, but thrive. “When we started 25 years ago, there used to be painted billboards, then came printed billboards, and now we have digital signage… this is how media is changing with time and reinventing itself. Going forward, technology and interactivity will play a key role, and digital OOH or DOOH will thrive.”

The company has OOH rights at Hyderabad airport, transit systems and street furniture, including modern bus queue shelters and pedestrian bridges.

“We have our presence in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Delhi and we want to consolidate our presence in these markets first. The number of sites today is not very important, but the quality of sites is. As we move forward, our strategy is to either have dominance or exclusivity because that is how you can create value for an advertiser also,” he said.

The company, which has developed an AI tool called SHARP for measuring the RoI of OOH media, will be investing heavily in tech, data and innovation, Jalan said.