Publishing and events specialist Informa gained friends in the market as the group reported a robust set of full-year results and confidently hiked dividends by 20 per cent.
Indeed, a slew of exceptional costs have chipped into earnings, and excluding these would have revealed a 7 per cent jump in adjusted operating profits to £336.2m. Much of Informa's resilience stems from its academic information division, which publishes journals and, increasingly, electronic books. Revenues at this unit rose 6.1 per cent, to £323.6m, with journal usage rising 18 per cent in the year. Meanwhile, a strong subscription revenue base underpinned growth at the professional and commercial information unit. Revenues here rose 2.6 per cent, on an organic basis, to £370.5. The unit is set to gain further from the integration of Datamonitor with the Informa business information division, which will generate £12m in cost savings this year.
The events and training division has benefited from its broadening emerging markets exposure, and the success of its largest show, Arab Health, which is already re-booking strongly for 2013. Sales from events grew 3.6 per cent to £581.2m, of which 20 per cent is generated in emerging markets.
Analysts at Investec Securities are expecting 2012 pre-tax profits of £304.9m, and EPS of 39.4p (£294.6m and 37.6p in 2011).
INFORMA (INF) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 442p | MARKET VALUE: | £2.66bn | |
| TOUCH: | 441-442p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 461p | LOW: 312p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.8% | PE RATIO: | 35 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 229p | NET DEBT: | 57% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 1.13 | 124 | 23.4 | 14.3 |
| 2008 | 1.28 | 109 | 16.8 | 8.41 |
| 2009 | 1.22 | 96.5 | 18.8 | 11.5 |
| 2010 | 1.23 | 125 | 16.5 | 14.0 |
| 2011 | 1.28 | 88.6 | 12.5 | 16.8 |
| % change | +4 | - | - | +20 |
Ex-div: 25 Apr Payment: 21 May *Includes intangible assets of £2.7bn, or 455p a share | ||||
