It has been a busy six months for Informa (INF) as the bosses of the business-information, conference and events group juggled disposals and acquisitions in effort increase the weighting towards resilient subscription revenues, digital products, large events and emerging markets.
The corporate training business was shed for $180m (albeit just after the half-year stage), along with the small events operations in Italy and Spain. Elsewhere, £50m was spent on acquisitions, including a number of small book lists, journals and small exhibition businesses.
That aside, the group's organic revenue rose 1.2 per cent in the half-year, with strong performances from the events and academic information divisions offsetting a 4 per cent decline in the professional and commercial information division. A 2.7 per cent increase in underlying operating profit reflected robust margin improvement at the events division, which continued to shift its mix towards bigger - and more lucrative - events; management expects these to account for more than 60 per cent of divisional revenue. Meanwhile the information division had a tough year as customers kept a tight lid on budgets and high-margin subscription revenue fell, sending the operating profit tumbling 17 per cent to £46.4m.
Numis Securities expects underlying pre-tax profit of £333m for the full year, giving EPS of 43p (from £317m and 40.7p in 2012).
| INFORMA (INF) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 526p | MARKET VALUE: | £3.17bn | |
| TOUCH: | 525-526p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 538p | LOW: 367p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.6% | PE RATIO: | 16 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 202p* | NET DEBT: | 76% | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 563 | -19.4 | -5.8 | 6.0 |
| 2013 | 567 | 76.3 | 9.9 | 6.4 |
| % change | +1 | – | – | +7 |
Ex-div: 14 Aug Payment: 12 Sep *Includes intangible assets of £2.49bn or 413p a share | ||||
