Interim Management Statement
Read Full Interim Management Statement
Informa PLC is today releasing a trading update covering the 10 month period
ended 31 October 2010.
Highlights
· Continued growth and recovery across the three main divisions
· Encouraging renewals and forward bookings for 2011
· Cash flow remains strong; year-end net debt to EBITDA ratio to be
between 2.0 and 2.5 times
· Debt successfully diversified.
· Trading in line with management expectations for the full year
Academic Information. Following a strong first half to the year, this division
has continued to trade well and organic revenue growth targets for 2010 remain
in line with our expectations. Early indications on subscription renewals for
2011 are encouraging. We continue to offer our customers comprehensive and
innovative content combined with flexible pricing models given the challenging
funding environment.
Professional and Commercial Information. Encouragingly for this relatively late
cycle business, we have seen a slight improvement in organic revenue growth
since the half year, although financial services subscription renewals continue
to be as tough as expected. Where appropriate, we have reviewed our portfolio to consolidate our relatively small number of advertising titles and remove marginal product. We remain excited by the prospects for this division in 2011 and beyond.
Events and Training. We continue to see signs of recovery across our conference businesses, particularly in those countries such as Germany and Australia where
economic conditions have improved. Our exhibition business is weighted towards the first half of the year and we are encouraged that forward bookings are up by 10% compared to this time last year. Across our training portfolio we are pleased to have seen some improvement since the half year. Excluding the US government contractor, Robbins-Gioia, we expect organic growth across the remainder of our US training business in 2010.
Operating cash flow remains strong and we expect to end the year within our
target net debt to EBITDA range of 2.0 to 2.5 times.
Peter Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, said:
"Informa's strong performance year to date leaves us well placed to meet
management expectations for the full year. Our portfolio of high quality
subscription based publishing products and market leading events has been
strengthened through launching new products and the completion of a few targeted bolt-on acquisitions. We expect to deliver organic revenue growth across our core divisions in 2010 and we believe that we have the appropriate balance of businesses to continue that growth into 2011, despite the uncertain global outlook.
US Private Placement
We are also pleased to announce a US$729m (GBP458m) private placement loan note issue, scheduled to be completed in December and drawn down in December and in January. The notes will be denominated in US Dollars ($598m), Euros (EUR50m) and Sterling (GBP40m). Proceeds of the issue will be used to partly repay existing bank debt facilities. The note maturities will range between five and ten years, with an average duration of 8.3 years, at a weighted average interest rate of 4.3%.
Adam Walker, Finance Director, said:
"We were delighted with the response from the US private placement investment community. The significant investor interest reflects Informa's strong credit metrics, including high levels of recurring revenues, robust cash flows and resilience through the economic cycle. This private placement financing ahead of our core bank facility expiring in 2012 provides additional flexibility,
extended maturities and diversifies our sources of funding."
Enquiries
Informa PLC
Adam Walker, Finance Director +41 (0) 41 444 1342
James Gareh, Investor Relations +44 (0) 20 7379 5151
Maitland +44 (0) 20 7017 4301
Neil Bennett
George Trefgarne