TIDMINF
RNS Number : 2946G
Informa PLC
26 May 2017
Press release
26 May 2017
Informa PLC
Trading Update
Continued improvement in Performance and Delivery through the
Growth Acceleration Plan
London: Informa (LSE: INF.L), the international Exhibitions,
Events, Business Intelligence and Academic Publishing Group, today
reported continued improvement in its operating performance through
the first four months of 2017 and re-confirmed full year
expectations, in a trading update to coincide with its Annual
General Meeting in London.
Stephen A. Carter, Group Chief Executive, said: "We continue to
make good progress in 2017, benefiting from our strengthened
operating capabilities, increased scale and international breadth.
We remain on track for a fourth consecutive year of growth in
revenue, earnings and cashflow."
He added: "The focus for this year is clear: continued delivery
of improving performance and returns from our Growth Acceleration
Plan, alongside the effective and efficient integration of Penton
Information Services."
Divisional Highlights
-- Global Exhibitions: Trading remains strong. We have run 14 of
our Top 20 events, with more than 90% of 2017 budgeted revenue
already received or contracted, and we remain confident of another
year of attractive growth. Our strategy to build international
scale across our portfolio of leading Brands is delivering strong
performances within numerous verticals:
o In Life Sciences, in January we separated our Medlab brand
from within the venue-bound Arab Health event and launched it as a
separate scale exhibition. This led to strong aggregate
year-on-year growth and provides both brands with good prospects
for further growth in the future.
o In Health & Nutrition, the combination of Informa and
Penton exhibitions has created the largest international business
in this attractive, fast-growing vertical. Record revenues and
attendance at both Natural Products West and Vitafoods Europe
underline the long-term growth potential and broader opportunity in
this vertical as part of our Market Maker strategy.
-- Knowledge & Networking: Our streamlined portfolio of high
quality, brand-led confexes has traded steadily year-to-date. It is
now focused on three specific end markets, with solid performances
from Brands within Life Sciences (Biotech Showcase, Bio-Europe
Spring), Finance (SuperReturn, Fund Forum) and TMT (IoT World).
Looking forward, in our largest portfolio, Life Sciences is
preparing the second annual Biotech Week Boston and in TMT, we are
gearing up for the launch of the London Tech Week festival in June
with more than 40,000 attendees expected.
o Portfolio Update: We are making good progress in the review of
the five remaining domestic conference businesses, with discussions
of a potential sale of Germany and Switzerland well-advanced. A
similar process is underway in Singapore, whilst in Brazil we have
exited all our domestic small conferences and absorbed the
remaining confexes into Global Exhibitions. This leaves Australia
as the final business for review.
-- Business Intelligence: Operating momentum continues steadily
in 2017, building on the positive growth delivered last year.
Renewal rates remain around 90% and new customer activity is
improving following a favourable response to the release of
GAP-funded new products and upgraded platforms in several
verticals. There remains a progressive release schedule of enhanced
products and platforms throughout the rest of the year. The
relaunch of our Consulting offering and integration of Penton
Marketing Services is further strengthening non-subscription
revenue. Together, this enhances our confidence that we will
deliver a second year of improving growth in 2017.
-- Academic Publishing: Trading in the Academic Publishing
Division remains steady, with good growth in Journals balanced by
some areas of weakness in our Books portfolio. Book volumes
continue to vary by subject category and segment, with Lower Level
textbooks still depressed, while journal renewals remain strong,
with consistently high levels of customer retention and cash
generation. By the end of May, more than 80% of 2017 budgeted
Journals revenue will have been received.
Our strength in Journals combined with a Books business that is
predominantly focused on scholarly and professional reference-led
content gives us confidence that as Academic communities
increasingly seek out specialist and differentiated content and
services, we have a sustainable position in the more robust
segments of the Education market.
o Portfolio management: The focus of our business is Upper Level
scholarly research and reference-led content, such as peer-reviewed
journals, monographs and specialist professional reference books.
For historical reasons, we have a modest holding of high-quality
products in the Lower Level undergraduate market, including in the
textbook segment, where the impact of market shifts, rental models
and pricing pressure is more evident. These are small and non-core
and we have no ambition of becoming a scale player in this area.
Following our annual portfolio review, this has led to discussions
with several parties regarding the potential sale of one of these
businesses, Garland Science, a highly-regarded textbook imprint. If
concluded, this will have the effect of reducing our exposure to
the Lower Level education market.
o Management succession: We have today announced that Annie
Callanan will become the new Chief Executive of the Academic
Publishing Division, joining the Group later this Summer. Annie is
a proven leader of technology and information services businesses,
and is currently serving as Chief Executive of Quantros, the
Healthcare technology solutions group. She was previously Chief
Operating Officer of Systech International and library solutions
provider ProQuest. Annie is an experienced executive and leader who
brings deep knowledge and expertise in digital platforms and
technology, with a strong track record of operational improvement
and innovation.
-- Penton Information Services: Trading amongst the distributed
Penton Brands remains on track, with good growth in Events and the
expected managed decline of Print revenue mitigated by Digital.
Highlights in the first few months of 2017 included record
attendance and revenues at Natural Products West and strong
renewals with good revenue growth from the digital subscription
Brand, EquipmentWatch. The integration of Penton is progressing
faster than planned and so we are confident of reaching our target
run rate of GBP14m annualised net operating synergies by year-end.
Business units have been combined with their respective Informa
Divisions, management responsibilities confirmed, and we are now
operating and reporting as an integrated Group.
Enquiries
Informa PLC
+44 (0) 20 7017
Stephen A. Carter, Group Chief Executive 5771
+44 (0) 20 7017
Gareth Wright, Group Finance Director 7096
Richard Menzies-Gow, Director of +44 (0) 20 3377
Investor Relations 3445
Teneo Blue Rubicon
+44 (0) 20 7420
Tim Burt / Zoe Watt 3141
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Notes to editors
Annie Callanan: Curriculum Vitae
Annie is a proven leader of technology and information services
businesses with a strong track record of delivering operational
improvement, innovation and shareholder value.
She is currently serving as Chief Executive of private equity
owned, Quantros, a San-Francisco based provider of software to
advance safety and quality performance in healthcare. Prior to
this, Annie was Chief Operating Officer of Systech International, a
leader in the delivery of serialization solutions to pharmaceutical
companies.
She was also previously Chief Operating Officer of ProQuest, the
library information solutions provider, where she led a team of
over 300 software engineers to transform the Group's core search
platform capabilities.
Earlier in her career, Annie worked at a range of technology and
information services companies, including as President and CEO of
Bowker, the global information and electronic services group. Annie
began her career with UBM within the Business Technology Group of
CMP Media.
Annie has an MBA from New York University.
2017 Informa Investor Day
Informa will hold its 2017 Investor Day on the morning of 15
June at City Hall, London. Presentations will start at 9.00am
through until 12.45pm, followed by lunch. Full details are
available at www.informa.com.
About Informa PLC
Informa operates at the heart of the Knowledge and Information
Economy. It is one of the world's leading business intelligence,
academic publishing, knowledge and events businesses.
With more than 7,500 colleagues globally, it has a presence in
all major geographies, including North America, South America,
Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
To learn more, please visit www.informa.com
Cautionary Statements
This Trading Update contains forward looking statements. These
statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and
actual results and events could differ materially from those
currently being anticipated as reflected in such forward looking
statements. The terms 'expect', 'should be', 'will be' and similar
expressions identify forward looking statements. Factors which may
cause future outcomes to differ from those foreseen in forward
looking statements include, but are not limited to: general
economic conditions and business conditions in Informa's markets;
exchange rate fluctuations, customers' acceptance of its products
and services; the actions of competitors; legislative, fiscal and
regulatory developments; changes in law and legal interpretation
affecting Informa's intellectual property rights and internet
communications; and the impact of technological change. These
forward looking statements speak only as of the date of this
Trading Update. Except as required by any applicable law or
regulation, the Group expressly disclaims any obligation or
undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any
forward looking statements contained in this document to reflect
any change in the Group's expectations or any change in events,
conditions or circumstances on which any statement is based.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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