Financial and operating highlights

• Turnover £135.6 million (2002 : £151.5 million)

• Profit before tax 4% lower at £9.7 million

• Adjusted profit before tax* 6% lower at £15.2 million (2002: £16.2million)

• Operating margins maintained at 9%

• Adjusted operating margins* maintained at 13%

• EPS unchanged at 3.92 pence

• Adjusted EPS* 5% lower at 8.29 pence (2002: 8.70 pence)

• Dividend unchanged at 2.66 pence

• Subscriptions remain strong and now account for 33% of group revenue

• Electronically delivered products now account for 35% of Group operating profit*

* Before goodwill amortisation and prior year exceptional items

Peter Rigby, Chairman of Informa Group PLC commented:

“We are pleased to report results which again demonstrate the resilience of our business during a period in which trading conditions were made more challenging by the conflict in Iraq and the SARS outbreak. These factors led us to defer a number of events into the second half of the year. However, our major events performed well and our subscription publications and services remained strong.

"In line with our strategy of acquiring value-added subscription services we have today announced the acquisition of MMS, an electronic real-time fixed income and foreign exchange information business, which we believe will produce attractive returns for our shareholders once fully integrated with our existing operations. Subscription businesses currently account for 33% of Group revenues and around 43% of Group operating profit (pre goodwill amortisation and exceptional costs). We see considerable growth opportunities both organically and through acquisition in this area, with subscription revenues becoming the dominant revenue stream for the business as we go forward.

"The period from the beginning of September to mid-December is an extremely busy one for the Group. Our subscription revenues are predictable and we remain confident of booking delegate and advertising revenues given our strong programme of publications and events. While we believe that a cautious economic improvement may be underway there is no consistent upturn in our markets. Accordingly, our near-term goal continues to be to manage our profitability and cash generation carefully, so that the business is in the best possible shape to take advantage of a recovery when it eventually takes hold.”

For further information, please contact:

Catherine Lees/Zoe Sanders, Bell Pottinger Financial	020 7861 3877/3887

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