Informa H1 results fail to convince

FTSE 100 publishing and exhibitions firm Informa (LON:INF) has seen its share price drop by 1.84% to 373.60p (as of 14:20 BST) after posting results for the six months ended 30th June. Revenues for the period were down by 42% due to COVID disruption and the company booked a statutory operating loss for the period. While some international events have taken place, the company is continuing to postpone the majority of its physical events through spring 2021.

CEO Stephen A. Carter commented: “Despite the first-half disruption to physical Events businesses caused by the pandemic, we are seeing strong demand and resilience in our specialist Subscriptions, Data and Content, reflecting the power of our brands and depth of geographic reach and customer relationships. Encouragingly, we have also seen our physical Events business recover in Mainland China, whilst our increasing participation in virtual events is maintaining our brands, developing our digital services and enhancing our data capabilities.

We have extended our COVID-19 Action Plan to deliver further business stability and security through to the end of 2021. This package of measures extends our Postponement Programme to mid/late Spring 2021, further lowers costs, reduces cash expenditures and strengthens our balance sheet, underpinning full year revenues of c.£1.7bn/£1.7bn-, which will also serve as our baseline for 2021.

The combination of our resilient Subscriptions-led businesses and the actions we are taking position Informa securely through to the end of 2021. We remain confident that Informa will emerge from the pandemic with Stability and Security, delivering long-term sustainable growth and shareholder value“.