UK - Informa ran 25 new exhibitions in the first six months of its financial year contributing to a stronger revenue and profits result, according to its half-yearly report.
The exhibition organiser chalked up group revenues of £634.8m in the six months to 30 June 2011, up 3.1 per cent from £624m year-on-year and excluding the IPEX quadrennial show. Pre-tax earnings were also up from £164.7m to £170.4m, while pre-tax profits hit £66.5m, an increase of £100,000 on the first half of 2010.
Events and training contributed 48.5 per cent of revenue, or £308.1m, over the six-month period representing an increase of £4m year-on-year. The division’s adjusted operating profits were also up by £3.9m to £59.5m.
According to Informa, growth stemmed from 25 new exhibitions, acquisitions and increased delegate and exhibitor numbers. The company acquired two Brazil-based trade exhibition businesses for US$133m in June. Twenty-two per cent of Informa’s events revenue now comes from emerging markets.
The company also recognised conferences and exhibitions in the finance and telecoms sector as strong performers over the past six months.
“We started in January with our largest show, Arab Health, which delivered strong growth again, has fully rebooked for 2012 with over 50 exhibitors on a waiting list and has been geo-cloned successfully in South Africa,” the company said in its financial statement. “Vitafoods, the European leading show for food ingredients and nutritional products, was held in Geneva and recorded strong growth over 2010. Vitafoods will be geo-cloned into Asia later this year and South America in 2012.”
Informa chief executive Peter Rigby said the company had made a strong start to the year and was heading towards a solid full-year result.
“While many global growth indicators remain a concern for a sustained economic recovery, the resilience of our publishing activities and larger events underpin our confidence around our full-year outlook,” he said.
“Furthermore, the more cyclical areas of our business are growing and we are confident would grow faster in a better economic environment."
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