TIDMBONH
RNS Number : 2399A
Bonhill Group PLC
20 January 2020
20 January 2020
Bonhill Group plc
("Bonhill", the "Company" or the "Group")
Trading update
Bonhill Group plc (AIM: BONH), a leading B2B media business
specialising in three key areas: Business Insight, Events and Data
& Analytics, provides the following trading update for the year
ended 31 December 2019 (the "Year"). All figures for the Year
included in this announcement remain subject to audit.
Revenue for the Year is expected to be GBP24.4 million (9 months
ended 31 December 2018: GBP8.0 million) and the Board now expects
EBITDA for the Year to be GBP2.3 million (9 months ended 31
December 2018: GBP0.9 million), being lower than market
expectations as approximately GBP0.25m of custom marketing
contracts which had been expected to be delivered in December 2020
will now be delivered in Q1 2020.
The Group will incur exceptional integration and restructuring
costs totalling GBP2.8 million (2018: GBP0.3 million) in the Year
due mainly to the planned integration of each of InvestmentNews and
Last Word Media, which were acquired by the Company in August 2018
and April 2019 respectively, and increased restructuring costs
relating to personnel changes in both businesses. As previously
announced, this restructuring will realise GBP1.5m of cost savings
in 2020. Cash at 31 December 2019 is expected to be GBP1.9 million
(2018: GBP4.4 million).
InvestmentNews
The Company announced in its trading update on 13 November 2019
that InvestmentNews had seen a return to more normalised trading
patterns. The Board is pleased to announce that this has continued
into this year with bookings to date at a similar level to the
corresponding period last year which was a strong trading period.
Following the significant changes in personnel made during the
course of the Year, including a new CEO and largely a new sales
team, and the investment made in technology combined with the move
to more custom offerings and consultative selling, it is pleasing
to report that InvestmentNews has a healthy pipeline of
opportunities which gives the Board greater confidence of an
improved performance in 2020.
Last Word Media
The specific issues which impacted the business during the Year
have abated with the exception of the well publicised situation in
Hong Kong which represents a much lower percentage of Last Word
Media's business than at the corresponding period last year.
Following the changes made since its acquisition in April 2019, and
the much improved backdrop following the decisive General Election
result in December 2019, the Board anticipates Last Word Media's
performance this year to be materially ahead of the result for the
Year.
The business starts this year with a better structure leading to
a clearer focus and enhanced decision making along with a lower
cost base and has a healthy book of forward orders in each of its
Events, digital and print businesses. Specifically, all of its
major congress events due to be held in 2020 have already sold out,
including the newly launched Fixed Income Congress, marking the
first activities away from the business' historical concentration
on European Active activities. In addition, the enhanced content
offering from Portfolio Adviser has resulted in a new record of
more than 1 million page views being achieved in the Year for the
brand. Finally, 2020 will see a greater emphasis being placed on
Last Word's ESG offerings which continue to show the potential for
material growth.
UK Media
The Board anticipates that the performance of the Group's UK
Media businesses will be materially ahead of that in the Year. This
is principally due to the changes made during the Year to the team
and as a result of selling a broader product set to a wider range
of clients. The UK Events business which ended the Year with a
series of successful launch events, including Women in Finance -
Toronto and Women in IT - Toronto, is due to hold its flagship
Women in IT Awards later this month with attendance likely to be
similar to last year's record.
Technology
As previously announced, the Group is nearing completion of its
initial technology investment programme. Migration in the US from
the Group's legacy platform has been successfully completed and the
planned redesign of the InvestmentNews site is progressing well and
will be released shortly as part of the Group's new agile
development methodology. This key investment provides the Group
with a stable open platform with the ability to expand and greatly
improve the features which can be delivered for customers.
Simon Stilwell, Bonhill's Chief Executive, commented:
"2019 was a difficult year for the Group with the specific
issues in UK fund management and fund flow, changes in senior
leadership across the business and the uncertain political
situation in Hong Kong all contributing. The outlook in both the UK
and US is greatly improved, reflected in the current level of
bookings being received, and the changes we have made in personnel
aligned to the technology and infrastructure investment give us an
altogether clearer outlook for 2020. We have seen a promising start
to 2020 with improved client engagement, order flow and an
increased level of RFPs across all the businesses. We look forward
to harnessing the new technology platform for the benefit of our
customers and growth."
For further enquiries please contact:
Bonhill Group plc +44 (0)20 7250 7035
Simon Stilwell, Chief Executive
David Brown, Group Finance Director
Shore Capital (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) +44 (0)20 7408 4050
Tom Griffiths/David Coaten (Corporate Advisory)
Fiona Conroy (Corporate Broking)
Canaccord Genuity Limited (Joint Broker) +44 (0)20 7523 8000
Bobbie Hilliam
Adam James
Georgina McCooke
About Bonhill Group plc
Bonhill Group plc is a leading, AIM-quoted, B2B media company
providing Business Insight, Events and Data & Analytics
propositions to Financial Services, Diversity and Technology
business communities in 25 countries. Bonhill operates fifteen
information websites, publishes four regular print titles, hosts
120 events per annum, offers a portfolio of data & analytics
propositions and provides a range of content marketing
solutions.
The business creates content, sales and marketing opportunities,
networking events and transactional opportunities for its audiences
of entrepreneurs, business owners and managers, CTOs &
technology leaders, asset & wealth managers, and professional
women, in addition to its sponsors, advertising clients and
customers. Flagship brands include: InvestmentNews, Portfolio
Adviser, Fund Selector Asia, What Investment, SmallBusiness.co.uk,
GrowthBusiness.co.uk, Information Age, Women in... events series,
and DiversityQ.
For more information visit www.bonhillplc.com
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
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