Events planner Informa enhances full-year outlook once more

Exhibitions organiser Informa has upgraded its annual guidance again as the continued recovery of in-person events ensured a robust end to 2022.

The FTSE 100 company anticipates reporting full-year revenue of over £2.38billion, alongside more than £530million in adjusted operating profit and free cash flow exceeding £440million when it publishes its annual results in March.

Two months ago, the group raised its annual operating profit outlook to between £490million and £505million, while its turnover range was upgraded by another £100million for a range of £2.3billion to £2.35billion.

Events: Among the trade shows organised by Informa include the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas (pictured), and Middle East Film and Comic Con, a major pop culture festival

Since then, it has observed a sustained improvement across its Taylor & Francis academic markets division on the back of significant demand for traditional pay-to-read publishing and open research.

It forecasts the division to have delivered underlying turnover growth of about 3 per cent for last year, against 2.4 per cent in 2021.

Growth has also been sustained across its business-to-business events arm, which had been impacted during the previous year by the reintroduction of Covid-19 restrictions following the Omicron variant’s emergence.

Informa now expects the B2B portfolio to provide around 70 per cent of underlying revenue expansion for its live exhibitions arm, partly due to an especially strong performance in the US.

Among the trade shows organised by the group include Middle East Film and Comic Con, one of the region’s largest pop culture festivals, the Monaco Yacht Show and the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas.

All these events were cancelled in either 2020 or 2021 because of stringent cross-border travel rules before coming back last year, yet Informa’s set of expos in China remained badly affected by draconian lockdown policies.

The London-based firm said it would witness ‘incremental growth’ from the country once a full schedule returns, which it believes is likely to happen towards the end of 2023 and into next year.

‘We continue to monitor the macro and geopolitical backdrop, and whilst uncertainties prevail, Informa operates with specialist brands serving specialist markets, providing resilience and growth opportunities in the vast majority of our chosen categories,’ it remarked.

Informa shares were up 0.3 per cent to 662.2p on Thursday afternoon, meaning their value had climbed by approximately 16 per cent in the past 12 months, though they remain far below their pre-pandemic levels.

David Amira, a research analyst at broker Bank of America Securities, has raised the price target for the company by 40p to 850p, as he noted its ‘bullish’ update and ‘reassuring momentum’ into the new financial year. 

Meanwhile, management at Centaur Media declared a special dividend for investors worth about £4million after the Marketing Week owner reported bumper growth in revenues and profits.

For the 2022 fiscal year, the business information publisher expects to post at least £41million in turnover and an adjusted underlying earnings margin exceeding 19.5 per cent. 

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk