LONDON: British business media group Informa Plc said organic revenue grew 1.8 per cent in the nine months to September, driven by strong performance at its global events and academic publishing businesses, and that current trading remained on track with full-year expectations unchanged.
The company’s global events division, which consists of trade shows, exhibitions and conferences, accounted for 43 per cent of total revenue in the first half of the year and saw a 7.9 per cent rise in organic revenue in the nine months ended September 30.
The division gained from the Brazilian biennial exhibition ForMobile in July and the shift of Dubai-based real estate investor conference — Cityscape Global, from the last quarter of 2013 to the third quarter this year, the company said.
The company, which also publishes real-time news, research, market data and 55,000 academic books and journals, said organic revenue at its academic publishing division rose 3.9 per cent in the first nine months of the year, while its business intelligence business saw a 7.1 per cent fall in organic revenue.
London-based Informa, which moved back to the UK from Switzerland in June, said it had seen “limited impact” in specific, higher-risk geographic markets from the increased global awareness of the Ebola virus, and would continue to monitor the situation.
The company said in July that it expected to spend up to £90 million (Dh534 million) over three years to meet its organic growth objectives, as part of a strategic review.
“Despite the current macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty in the wider business environment, this [plan] is expected to deliver growth across all our divisions over time and generate valuable returns for shareholders,” Chief Executive Stephen Carter said in a statement.
“Informa has effectively had a “new” CEO in place for nearly 18 months and yet, bar a few managerial changes and some re-scoping of the business, investors are yet to hear of what is the management’s strategic direction,” Liberum analysts wrote in a note to clients.
They said unless there was a clear indication of a new strategy at Informa’s investor day in November, there was the risk that investors would become disenchanted with the story.
Informa was formed by the 1998 merger of IBC Group Plc and Lloyd’s of London Press Ltd. Its oldest business, the Lloyd’s List, was started in 1734 and is among one of the world’s oldest continuously running journals.
Shares in Informa were up 1.8 per cent at 455.6 pence at 0848 GMT on the London Stock Exchange.
