Hyve Group confident after positive first half

The London-listed group said it delivered a “strong performance” across its key performance indicators in the period since 1 October, including like-for-like customer spend.

Following its five-year transformation, the schedule of the group's streamlined portfolio of events was now weighted to the first six months of its financial year.

That included brands such as Africa Oil Week, Mining Indaba, and Spring Fair, which all delivered strong year-on-year growth.

Fintech Meetup and Shoptalk, both taking place at the end of March, were expected to perform in line with the group's expectations, despite some impact on attendance from uncertainties created as a result of recent macro events in the banking and technology sectors.

The group held its first events in China since 2020 after the phasing out Covid-19 related restrictions, including ChinaCoat.

As expected, the events were impacted due to the early stages of market re-opening and the lack of international participation.

Good progress was reported in rolling out the meeting programmes offering across the portfolio.

The company said it was continuing to invest in those products to cement the events' market-leading status, increase return on investment for customers, and drive future organic growth.

Adjusted net debt as at 22 March stood at around £55m, including the receipt of insurance proceeds in February and bookings for upcoming events, but not taking into consideration recent event delivery costs.

The adjusted net debt position at the end of the 2023 financial year was expected to be in the region of £80m to £85m.

Hyve said it received a further £4.2m of cancellation insurance proceeds bringing aggregate claims to date to £110.5m out of £112m maximum available for events cancelled in 2020 and 2021.

That, the board said, was the final settlement amount in respect of all outstanding claims.

The group entered the 2023 financial year with positive trading momentum, which it said had continued throughout the first half with forward bookings of approximately £145m as at 22 March

That gave the directors confidence that performance for the full financial year would be in line with expectations.

At the same point in time last year, the group had £102m of forward bookings on 2022 events.

“Our five-year transformation, which we completed last year and resulted in a streamlined and de-risked portfolio of market-leading events, has allowed us to start this year with purpose and momentum,” said chief executive officer Mark Shashoua.

“This has led to strong trading throughout the first six months of the year, with like-for-like customer spend tracking strongly into 2023 in line with our expectations.

“In addition, our digital diversification continues, with the addition of new tech-enabled meetings programmes and the expansion of existing ones.”

Shashoua said that trajectory would continue in the second half of the year.

“We remain conscious of challenges in the macro-economic environment globally, the threat of recession in a number of our markets and, in particular, the recent macro events in banking and tech sectors.

“However, we believe we are well placed to weather any possible challenges, as marketing spend continues to gravitate towards must-attend leading events that drive return on investment.”

At 1013 GMT, shares in Hyve Group were down 0.12% at 111.6p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.