Informa delays £400m of events due to coronavirus
Informa has delayed events representing £400m in revenue until later this year as part of a strategy to cope with the outbreak of coronavirus.
The figures
The company said this morning that it is not providing market guidance for 2020 due to the unknown impact of coronavirus on the business.
However it said it expects to incur some costs due to its rescheduling and virtualisation strategy.
Informa also today announced its full-year results for 2019, reporting underlying revenue growth of 3.5 per cent, reaching £2.89bn.
Underlying adjusted operating profit was £9331.1, an increase of 6.5 per cent.
The company announced a dividend per share of 23.5p.
Why it’s interesting
Informa announced this morning that it is in the process of rescheduling around 45 large event brands to later this year, representing budgeted revenue of £350m.
Meanwhile, 70 smaller events – representing £50m of revenue – have also been rescheduled. In total, 13 events have been cancelled, with a £25m hit to revenue.
Some events have also been localised or “virtualized”.
What Informa said
Informa group chief executive Stephen A Carter said: “Our subscriptions-related businesses, which account for around 35 per cent of revenue continue to grow consistently.
“However, we are facing a 2020 impact from Covid-19 in our events-related businesses and so we have used our strong customer and supplier relationships to swiftly deploy a material postponement programme, shifting our events calendar to later dates in 2020.
“Our brands and strong platforms continue to provide attractive opportunities for further market specialisation and future growth.”