Ascential unveils £850m capital return as resized business delivers strong growth

Ascential saw shares rise on Thursday after the events, intelligence and advisory company announced a capital return of £850m to shareholders after beating analysts' forecasts with its 2023 results.

The capital return, which will be delivered through a combination of tender offer, special dividend and on-market buyback programmes, comes shortly after the £1.2bn disposal of Digital Commerce and WGSN which completed since the year-end.

The company, which runs events like Cannes Lions and Money 20/20, Revenues of continuing operations were up 13% year-on-year at £206.4m in 2023, with strong growth marketing (+22%) making up for a 1% increase in Financial Technology.

Adjusted EBITDA totalled £56.4m, up 17% on 2022, helped by a 1.2 percentage-point increase in margins to 27.3%.

What's more, going forward, Ascential's focus on cost reduction and the resizing of central functions to match the continuing business means corporate costs will be 50% lower than 2023 at £13m per annum.

"Following our strategic review, Ascential is now a focused events-led business with a compelling strategic framework, built around two of the world's leading event platforms," said chief executive Philip Thomas.

"The sales of Digital Commerce and WGSN announced in October 2023 have given us the opportunity to return to our shareholders a value equivalent to almost 90% of Ascential's market capitalisation prior to the announcement date, and our shareholders also now own a business that has our world-leading events firmly at its heart and sole focus."

Shares were up 3.2% at 310.6p by 0846 GMT.