Informa confident in solid full-year progress

The FTSE 100 company said it delivered underlying revenue growth of 3.2% in the period, adding that at a reported level, revenue growth was around 40% year-on-year.

It said its combined business-to-business events businesses, comprising the ‘Global Exhibitions’ and ‘Knowledge & Networking’ divisions, recorded underlying revenue growth of +5.2% through the first 10 months of the year.

“The benefits of international expansion and scale, combined with our focus on major B2B brands within attractive growth verticals continue to deliver a consistently strong performance across our exhibitions business, with underlying revenue growth of 9.2% for the 10-month period,” the board said in its statement.

Informa said it ran fewer of its top 30 exhibitions during the second half of the year, but those held so far had performed in line or ahead of expectations, including in real estate and construction (Cityscape Global), international yachting (Monaco Yacht Show, Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show), agriculture (Farm Progress), health and nutrition (Natural Products East, SupplySide West) and pop culture (Fan Expo).

The board said the outlook remained “encouraging” with more than 95% of 2017 revenue now received or contracted, and a continued positive trend in forward bookings for 2018.

“This gives us confidence we can continue to deliver underlying growth and margins ahead of the wider exhibitions market next year and beyond.”

In the ‘Knowledge & Networking’ division, Informa said its strategy to streamline and focus the portfolio on its “high quality”, brand-led ‘confexes’ in the three end markets of global finance (SuperReturn, Finnovate), life sciences (BioEurope, Boston Biotech) and TMT (Internet of Things World, AfricaCom) was delivering “progressive improvement”.

After four years of proactive portfolio management, the period since the half year saw a return to positive growth for the first time since the launch of the company’s growth acceleration plan (GAP), which reportedly helped to improve the 10 month position, reducing the underlying revenue decline to -2.5% year-to-date.

“Our programme of portfolio management continues with the sale of Euroforum, our domestic conference business in Germany and Switzerland, which completed on 1 November,” the board said.

“After some exploratory discussions, we decided to retain our business in Australia and Singapore, which is modest in size but owns and operates some valuable brands and delivers steady cash flow.”

November and December are always important months for the division, Informa’s board explained, with a number of its largest branded events taking place.

It added that the improved mix and focus of the business provided greater visibility, with forward pacing of delegate sales on track.

However, that remained a transactional business so its focus continued to be on full-year delivery to ensure it entered 2018 on a positive growth trajectory.

In its business intelligence division, Informa said the benefits of GAP investment into core products and platforms, combined with continued focus on strengthening its customer relationships, was producing a “steady improvement” in operating and financial performance, with underlying revenue growth of 1.7% over the first 10 months of the year.

It said that the last few months of the year remained a “key period” for subscription renewals, adding that it was entering it with a positive trend in annualised contract values and a healthy sales pipeline, particularly in agribusiness, transportation and finance following a number of recent product upgrades and new launches.

“We also continue to focus on our contingent businesses, with our re-launched consulting offering gaining good customer traction.

“Similarly, in marketing services we recently re-launched the business as Informa Engage to coincide with the busy fourth quarter trading period, when customers traditionally look to allocate budgets on marketing and research initiatives.”

The board said that together, that gave it confidence the firm would deliver “further steady improvement” in growth in 2017, leaving it well placed to meet its target of 3% underlying revenue growth in 2018.

Finally, the company said the trends in Academic Publishing remained “broadly consistent”, with continued strength in academic research journals and steady trading in upper level reference-led books, balanced by ongoing volatility in the lower level textbook market.

In aggregate, that produced modest 0.9% underlying revenue growth across the 10 month period, similar to the first half of the year.

In September, the division announced the addition of independent open access publisher Dove Medical Press, which the board said enhanced its journals business and strengthened its position in health sciences, adding a “valuable portfolio” of established and indexed open access journals and a platform for future expansion in the “attractive and growing” market.

“The outlook remains robust and consistent,” the board said, adding that “the journal subscription season has started well, with renewals still strong.”

It explained that, while the back end of the year was a key period for books trading, Informa remained confident of a solid outcome, and a second consecutive year of modest positive growth for the overall business.

“At Informa, the combination of increased operational fitness, the delivery of the 2014-2017 Growth Acceleration Plan and the integration of Penton Information Services continues to serve us well,” commented group chief executive Stephen A Carter.

“While the fourth quarter is always an important period for us, our increased scale and international breadth give us confidence we can deliver another year of growth in revenue, profit, cash flow and dividends in 2017.”