More than 9,500 marketing professionals descended on the French seaside city of Cannes last summer to schmooze and mingle at the Cannes Lions festival. Organiser Ascential (ASCL) charged exhibitors for floor space and collected attendance, sponsorship and award entry fees, fuelling an 18 per cent rise in constant-currency revenue from its flagship event. That helped the information and events giant deliver a 14 per cent rise in underlying cash profit to £90.9m in 2015.
Guardian Media Group and private equity outfit Apax Partners took Ascential public in February 2016. Management bolstered its portfolio of "must attend" industry events and subscription information products in the period. That sent customer volumes and average revenue per user up 3 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively.
Patches of weakness and the phasing out of print products weighed on information sales. But rising revenue and greater efficiency at fashion trend forecasting service WGSN drove the segment's underlying cash profit up 15 per cent. Meanwhile, strong showings from Cannes Lions and Money20/20 - a payments industry event held in Las Vegas - drove underlying cash profit up 11 per cent in the exhibitions and festivals business. And management expects new digital products, the roll out of onsite rebooking and the replication of Money20/20 in Denmark to underpin further growth in 2016.
| ASCENTIAL (ASCL) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 244p | MARKET VALUE: | £975m | |
| TOUCH: | 243-244p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 250p | LOW: 199p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 37p* | NET DEBT: | 256% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 252 | 62.8 | na | na |
| 2013 | 271 | -9.3 | na | na |
| 2014 | 313 | -5.4 | na | na |
| 2015† | 319 | 8.4 | na | na |
| % change | +2 | - | - | - |
*Includes intangible assets of £659m, or 164p a share †Ascential listed in February 2016 | ||||
