Informa Posts Strong Results

Chairman Peter Rigby has ruled out bidding for the trade magazine division of Reed Elsevier (Reed Business Information) saying the advertising business is not one they are in. The company did however post strong financial results that were in line with the expectations set in mid-December. The acquisition of Datamonitor which at the time seemed an expensive deal looks to have been integrated well and already producing impressive results. From their press release here are their highlights:

• Revenue £1.13 billion – 9% pro forma growth
• Adjusted operating profit £261.0m – 19% pro forma growth
• Adjusted operating margin rises above 23%
• Strong trading across all three divisions (Academic & Scientific, Professional and Commercial) and all three business streams (Publishing, Performance Improvement and Events)
• Datamonitor delivers 22% pro forma revenue growth for the full year
• Adjusted cash conversion 110% of adjusted operating profit
• Total dividend increases 39%
• Confident of 2008 outlook
• Academic and Scientific division grows adjusted operating profit by 25% to achieve a 29% margin
• Strong yield increases and drop through from electronic delivery
• Professional division benefits from Performance Improvement extending global reach
• Non-US revenues increase by 29%
• Commercial division growth fuelled by extension of Large Scale Events portfolio and 38% increase in Dubai revenues

Chairman Rigby: "We have transformed Informa in recent years. We have built a business based on recurring revenue streams which provides strong defensive qualities, but not at the expense of continuing good growth. We are of course aware of the current uncertainty in the financial markets, but at this point the board sees no signs in our trading to alter its expectations that Informa will deliver another strong performance in 2008. Our confidence in the future of the business is reflected by a 39% increase in the dividend over 2006."