Informa publishes 2020 year-end update

According to Informa:

Key Highlights

• Stability and Security… Delivery of Stability and Security in 2020, in the face of significant COVID-19 disruption to physical events, protecting and preserving long-term value of brands, talent and customer relationships;
• Subscription strength… Stability and Security underpinned by strong performances in our Subscription-led businesses, which delivered positive aggregate underlying growth across the year, demonstrating the strength of our specialist brands;
• Physical Events… Continued return and recovery of physical events in Mainland China and other parts of Asia, combined with pre-planned Postponement Programme (90% of physical events ex- China scheduled from June 2021) and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, providing continued confidence in progressive return of physical events through 2021 in North America and EMEA;
• Digital acceleration… Digital services and virtual events grew at pace in 2020, accelerating the integration of data and digital technology into and around the physical event brands, deepening customer relationships through smarter events and intelligent B2B services;
• COVID-19 Financing Action Plan… Programme of activities to deliver Stability and Security in financing completed, with earliest debt maturities extended to 2023, financial covenants removed and £1bn+ of liquidity confirmed;
• COVID-19 Cost Management Plan… £600m+ cost savings delivered to plan by year-end, including £400m+ direct savings to adjusted operating profit and £200m+ annualised indirect savings. Combination of effective cost management, efficient financing and robust subscriptions to deliver positive cash flow from Q1 2021;
• 2020 outturn… Full year 2020 revenue expected to be in line with guidance previously provided at the Half-Year Results in September, in a range of £1.65bn to £1.68bn, with adjusted operating profit expected to be in a range of £250m to £270m;
• Chair succession… John Rishton announced as Chair-Elect, with a managed handover from Derek Mapp, completing at the Annual General Meeting in June 2021.

Stephen A. Carter, Group Chief Executive, Informa PLC, said: “The Informa Group enters 2021 with an intention to use the progressive return from COVID-19 to deepen our use of digital and data services, thereby ensuring our products and brands remain relevant in a post pandemic world. The continued strength and growth of our subscription businesses and our prior decision to extend the physical Events Postponement Programme should serve us well as markets gradually open up and customer confidence recovers in the latter half of 2021. Equally important, will be our continued commitment to strengthening our digital and data capabilities.”

“From the outset of the pandemic, we have been focused on protecting and preserving the long-term value of our Brands and Businesses, single-mindedly pursuing a strategy of Stability and Security through 2020. Our Subscription-led businesses have performed well throughout. In our Event-led businesses, in the absence of physical events in most regions, our brands and strong customer relationships enabled us to shift at speed to digital services and virtual events. At the same time, we have significantly reduced our operating costs, secured greater financial flexibility, deployed a major physical Event Postponement Programme and, critically, provided consistent support to Colleagues and Customers.”

See full report here