Outdoor advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. said on Friday its quarterly profit rose 43 percent, helped by growth in ads by automotive, telecommunications and retail companies.

The San Antonio, Texas, company posted second-quarter net profit of $68.6 million, or 19 cents per share, up from $48.0 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 12 percent to $836.7 million, including $29 million in foreign exchange gains. Revenue growth excluding those gains would have been 8 percent.

Analysts, on average, were looking for earnings per share of 20 cents on revenue of $822 million for the second quarter, according to Reuters Estimates.

International revenue, which accounted for 55 percent of total revenue, rose 11 percent from a year earlier, with Italy, Spain and Ireland contributing to the rise, Clear Channel Outdoor said.

Americas revenue, accounting for the remaining 45 percent, rose 12 percent from a year ago.

The company is a unit of radio station operator Clear Channel Communications Inc., which agreed in May to a $19.6 billion buyout by Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners. The deal has yet to be approved by shareholders.

(Reporting by Tiffany Wu in New York and Jennifer Robin Raj in Bangalore)

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