TIDMINF
RNS Number : 8852S
Informa PLC
11 November 2019
Informa LEI: 5493006VM2LKUPSEDU20
Informa PLC Press Release
11 November 2019
Ten-Month Trading Update
Resilient Performance & Continuing Growth
London: Informa (LSE: INF.L), the International Exhibitions,
Events, Information Services and Advanced Learning Group, today
issued a trading update for the 10-month period ending 31 October
2019.
Key Highlights
-- Performance...Continued growth in revenue, adjusted profit,
earnings and cashflow; full year performance on track;
-- Growth...Group underlying revenue growth of 2.8% for the ten
months to 31 October 2019, ahead of significant, seasonally
stronger November/December trading period;
-- Focus...Progressive Portfolio Management continues with
divestiture of Industry & Infrastructure Media Brands
Portfolio, following on from sale of Life Sciences Media Brands
Portfolio and Agribusiness Portfolio, as well as portfolio changes
in Informa Connect;
-- Expansion...Minority investment in Founders Forum and launch
of joint venture with Informa Tech, combining strengths to support
next phase of growth in tech innovation and entrepreneurship;
-- Strength...Issue of new EUR500m bond further strengthens
balance sheet, lowering overall cost of debt and extending average
maturity to 5.5 years.
Stephen A. Carter, Group Chief Executive, Informa PLC, said:
"After ten months trading in 2019, despite an unpredictable economic/geo-political
backdrop, the enlarged Informa Group continues to demonstrate resilience
and performance, remaining on track for a sixth consecutive year
of growth in underlying revenue, profit, adjusted earnings and
cashflow."
===================================================================================
2019 Ten-Month Trading Highlights
Following the successful combination with UBM through the
Accelerated Integration Plan, Informa has continued to perform
well, with underlying revenue growth for the 10-month period to 31
October 2019 at 2.8%. This reflects a good underlying performance,
balanced against strong comparable growth in the third quarter last
year, fewer of our major brands operating in the period and two
market-specific, in-year impacts within Informa Markets in Hong
Kong and Dubai.
November and December are significant trading months for the
enlarged Informa Group, representing around 20% of annual revenue,
with November alone accounting for more than GBP350m. This includes
a key period for subscription renewals and consulting business at
Informa Intelligence, Informa Tech and Taylor & Francis, whilst
we also run a number of major event Brands through the period,
including in Pharma & Healthcare (CPhI Worldwide, CPhI India,
BioEurope) and Technology (AI Summit, AfricaCom, Blackhat
Europe).
Despite ongoing economic/geo-political uncertainty, our forward
pacing for the remainder of 2019 provides reassurance on our Group
revenue guidance of 3.5% for the year. Furthermore, the breadth and
balance of the enlarged Group, the quality of our revenue growth
and strong visibility of forward bookings and renewals into the
first quarter of 2020 gives us confidence in the strength and
resilience of future growth.
Informa Markets...specialist international B2B platforms for
trade and commerce
Our international scale and depth in a range of attractive and
growing specialist B2B markets delivered strong performances
through the third quarter in Health & Nutrition (SupplySide
West), Hospitality, Food & Beverage (Hotelex) and Design &
Furniture (Furniture China), amongst others.
We are also continuing to see good progress in the Fashion
portfolio following the launch of the Fashion GAP Plan, stemming
the historical decline in attendance over previous years, improving
NPS scores and successfully launching OneMagic. This is laying the
foundation for further improvement in 2020, supporting our target
to return the Fashion portfolio to growth by 2021.
The Group had two market-specific, in-year impacts through the
period: in Dubai, increasing commitment to World Expo 2020,
combined with challenging market conditions, has had a significant
effect on traditional exhibitions investment, particularly in Real
Estate & Construction, impacting Cityscape Global, in
September. In Hong Kong, where we generate around 4% of Group
revenue, recent civil protests have had a small impact on revenue
growth at some events. This affected our largest brand in the
region during September, the Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Show,
although a strong programme of support, including investment in
additional security and transport, ensured the show still ran
effectively.
The underlying performance of Informa Markets was strong in the
first 10-months of the year, despite these impacts in Dubai and
Hong Kong, delivering 3.4% underlying revenue growth across the
period.
A number of our largest and fastest growing Brands operate
through the last two months of the year and forward bookings are on
track, most notably in Pharma (CPhI Worldwide, Food Ingredients
Europe, CPhI India), and Maritime, Transportation & Logistics
(Marintec, Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show). This will lead
to a re-acceleration in growth through to year-end, although given
the two, in-year impacts, growth for the year is now expected to be
4.5%- rather than 4.5%+.
Informa Connect...international B2B communities for learning and
engagement
Our focus on high quality brands in attractive specialist
markets continues to deliver improved growth in 2019, with
underlying revenue growth increasing from 2.1% after six months to
2.8% after ten months, with strong recent performances in both
Global Finance (Finovate Fall, SuperReturn Asia) and Life Sciences
(BioProcess International, BioPharm America).
With forward pacing trends positive and confidence in our major
brands, including in Marketing (TMRE) and Life Sciences
(BioEurope), this leaves us well placed to meet or beat our 2.5%
underlying revenue growth target for the year.
Informa Connect specialises in developing highly curated content
and strong professional networks and communities. As a consequence,
through the Progressive Portfolio Management ("PPM") programme, we
have been realigning our events portfolios to take advantage of
this skill set, combining our more content curated events such as
our Canadian events portfolio into Informa Connect. This particular
business has annual revenues of around GBP40m and operates
content-rich Branded Conferences, Confexes and Consumer-led events
in a range of specialist communities and sectors.
Informa Tech...specialist B2B services and solutions for the
technology industry
In 2019, the priority for Informa Tech is establishing itself as
a market-focused business with B2B products and services in events,
research, consulting, data and media, a strong position in a range
of Technology sub-sectors and annual revenues of close to
GBP300m.
Following the addition of IHS Markit's TMT Portfolio in August,
today we have made a minority investment in and launched a joint
venture with Founders Forum, the leading community for
entrepreneurs, investors and leaders in the Digital, Media and
Technology markets. It brings a unique brand and high-profile
connections in attractive, fast growth segments and will support
the next phase of growth in technology innovation and
entrepreneurship, including the continued expansion of London Tech
Week.
We are planning for growth in all key segments of the market,
from Enterprise IT to The Internet of Things. This is reflected in
our progress through 2019, with strong recent performances in
Security (Blackhat) and Artificial Intelligence (AI Summit)
delivering 10-month underlying revenue growth of 1.7%, against a
full year target of 2%.
As well as a steady performance in 2019, we continue to build
for the future, developing a compelling customer proposition as a
combined business, for 2020 and beyond.
Informa Intelligence...specialist B2B insight and
intelligence
Following a period of major restructuring and reinvestment
through the Growth Acceleration Plan, the business is now
performing consistently, with improving levels of growth in its
specialist markets of Pharma, Retail Banking and Maritime.
Strong renewal rates and robust new business performance through
the primary subscriptions season laid a solid foundation for
further growth, and we are seeing this continue in the second half
of the year, with underlying revenue growth for the 10-month period
of 3.1%.
Annualised contract values continue to grow steadily, providing
forward visibility alongside a strong pipeline for project
consulting and other contingent revenues. We remain on track to
meet or beat our 3% underlying growth target for the year.
As part of the PPM programme, today we have announced the
divestiture of our Industry & Infrastructure Media Brands
Portfolio to Endeavor Business Media. This is a collection of
largely advertising-funded information brands serving industrial
markets, including Industry Week, New Equipment Digest and Machine
Design. The sale brings total annualised revenues of businesses we
have divested through PPM within the range of the targeted
GBP150m.
Taylor & Francis...scholarly publishing and specialist
reference-led content
Against a backdrop of robust underlying demand for specialist
knowledge and ongoing evolution in product formats and distribution
models, Taylor & Francis continues to perform consistently.
Our approach is to remain flexible, balancing customer needs
with maintaining the overall quality and integrity of our content.
This strategy continues to deliver steady, modest growth,
underpinned by robust and predictable subscription revenues and
good growth in Open Access services. Books revenue continues to be
more transactional in nature and, after delivering strong growth in
2018 on the back of our Operational Improvement Programme, 2019 has
a particularly tough comparable.
In the ten-month period to 31 October, we delivered underlying
revenue growth of 1.8%, consistent with the run-rate reported at
the half-year stage. With a clear pipeline of activity in the last
two months of the year, we remain confident in our annual target of
2% underlying growth.
Enquiries
Informa PLC
Stephen A. Carter, Group Chief Executive
Gareth Wright, Group Finance Director +44 (0)20 7017 5771
Richard Menzies-Gow, Director of IR +44 (0)20 7017 7096
& Comms +44 (0)20 3377 3445
Teneo Strategy
Tim Burt / Zoë Watt +44 (0)20 7240 2486
========================================== =====================
Analyst and Investors
Gareth Wright, Group Finance Director, and Richard Menzies-Gow,
Director of Investor Relations, will be hosting a short conference
call for analysts and investors today to discuss the Trading
Update, commencing at 09:00 UK time. Dial-in details: +44 (0)330
336 9104 / Confirmation Code: 691843.
Notes to Editors
Informa PLC
Informa is a leading international Exhibitions, Events,
Information Services and Scholarly Publishing Group with annual
revenues approaching GBP3 billion. It helps commercial,
professional and academic communities work smarter and make better
decisions faster, through specialist content and intelligence, and
opportunities to connect and learn. For more information, please
visit www.informa.com.
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END
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