The events industry is worth around £42bn in the UK alone, although it remains largely fragmented. Niche operators can flourish in the sector, whereas the likes of ITE (ITE) are aiming for a larger slice of the market by building scale, leveraging expertise abroad, but with an emphasis on creating "content-driven, must-attend events" – the kind that endure in an overcrowded marketplace.
Performance over the past couple of years has been hampered by legacy issues, including the after-effects of the Russian financial crisis. So, in addition to the £300m marquee deal to acquire Ascential Events, the group has undertaken some vigorous housekeeping, with 29 regional events either closed or sold in the year, while another 56 non-core Russian events were hived-off post period-end. The group also acquired the Mining Indaba - the world’s largest mining investment conference – after the bell, taking net debt to a manageable 1.7 times cash profits.
Transaction, integration and restructuring costs tipped ITE into a reported operating loss, but disregard these charges, along with other one-off effects, and adjusted operating profit was 11 per cent to the good at £38.7m.
Numis gives cash profits of £51.2m for the September 2019 year-end, leading to EPS of 4.8p, rising to £56.9m and 5.4p in FY2020.
| ITE (ITE) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 61.1p | MARKET VALUE: | £453m | |
| TOUCH: | 61.1-61.9p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 114p | LOW: 56p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.1% | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 41p | NET DEBT: | 25% | |
| Year to 30 Sept | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2014† | 175 | 41.5 | 8.5 | 4.6 |
| 2015† | 136 | 31.5 | 6.5 | 4.6 |
| 2016† | 134 | -4.1 | -2.2 | 2.8 |
| 2017 (restated) | 153 | -3.2 | -1.9 | 2.5 |
| 2018 | 176 | -3.7 | -1.6 | 2.5 |
| % change | +15 | - | - | - |
| Ex-div: | 3 Jan | |||
| Payment: | 4 Feb | |||
| †EPS and dividend figures restated to reflect 7-for-4 rights issue of June 2018. *Includes intangible assets of £469m, or 63p a share. | ||||
