Home Page: http://www.informa.com/

Highlights

• Turnover up 17% to £116 million (1998: £99 million)
  
• Profit before tax and exceptionals up 36% at £15 million (1998: £11 million)
  
• Operating margin up over 1% to 15%
  
• Adjusted earnings 9.17p (1998: 7.64p)
  
• Integration producing expected benefits
  
• Electronic media profit grown by 29%
  

Peter Rigby, Chairman of Informa Group, commented: "These results for the first half of the year are encouraging. The merger has led to a number of initiatives that have already contributed to the bottom line in 1999. We expect the second half of 1999, combining both organic growth and growth from recent acquisitions, to contribute to a satisfactory result for the year."

Interim Results

These results are the first to reflect the group as a single entity following the merger late last year. They already show some of the benefits of merging with underlying pre-tax profits up by 23% to £16.1 million (1998: £13 million) excluding goodwill amortisation, MBO interest and exceptional items. Headline profit before tax excluding exceptional items rose 36% to £15 million (1998: £11 million). Turnover was up 17% at £116 million (1998: £99 million).

On an adjusted basis earnings per share were 9.17p (1998:7.64p) a rise of 20%. An interim dividend of 2.33p will be paid on 8 November to shareholders on the register on 8 October.

Integration benefits

In practice, the merger has provided more commercial opportunities than we anticipated.

An ability to package quality information in many different formats and deliver it according to customer preference is a strong advantage in an age where tailored information is vital. It is Informa's aim to continue to produce relevant and high quality information which is not freely available elsewhere.

Most of our divisions have now formed themselves into market facing "buddy" groups covering the various sectors in which we operate. These cross-divisional groups are starting to take full advantage of cross-selling and marketing opportunities. In particular, they are developing new products to ensure that we fully leverage our various leading brands and exploit the synergies between our conference and publishing activities.

For example, accompanying the annual conference and exhibition, GSM World Congress, we also produced a CD Rom of the event, a GSM Directory, a special edition of Mobile Communications International magazine and a daily newspaper. It is the creation of such product "clusters" that will drive the future growth of Informa.

Separately we have begun to draw on the strength of our major publications to support and build our conference activity. Among examples of this are Lloyd's Ship Manager, now the official publication for a Ship Registers Conference in September, Lloyd's List which is the official publication for the Salvage and Wreck event in October and Bunker News, which is associated with a number of events in the environmental risk area.

Much of the reorganisation identified at the time of the merger has been successfully completed. The reorganisation costs and savings are in line with our expectations. So far we have spent £6.7 million on exceptional costs in 1999 and are on target to achieve annualised cost savings across the group of some £2 million. Of this some £0.7 million is expected to flow through this year.

We have amalgamated the two UK conference businesses, merged the UK business publishing operations and established one head office. We have also merged our offices in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. In addition we have closed two loss-making South African offices and downsized our Middle East operations.

The merger has also enabled us to review our portfolio of businesses to concentrate on core activities. We have disposed of Marcus Bohn Associates Limited, a UK sales training business; Assetrac, a small US publishing business; and are closing down our French IT training business.

Trading

Our results for the first six months of 1999 are encouraging. They reflect the benefits of the reorganisation as detailed above and strong trading performances in most parts of the group. Operating profit margin (before exceptional items and goodwill amortisation) has improved to 14.8% (1998: 13.6%) and we expect further improvements as the merger benefits unfold and the potential of our developing overseas businesses is realised.

The IT and Telecommunications area is performing particularly strongly. Profits are up 58% on last year as the telecoms industry prepares itself for the third generation of mobile phones. In February the GSM World Congress in Cannes had some 4,500 delegates and a further 4,000 exhibition visitors. This reflects significant growth over 1998. June saw two successful mobile telecoms events covering Bluetooth and UMTS technologies.

The first half of 1999 has seen a number of other notable successes. The re-launch of Lloyd's List in June, only the fourth in its 265 year history, was extremely well received and coincided with a highly successful Cruise + Ferry exhibition held in London.

The European operations, particularly in Holland and Germany, have traded strongly. The conference business in Brazil turned around to make a small profit. Our Asian businesses performed well as the regional economies continued to recover.

In the U.S. our publishing businesses, Townsend and Schupp and Bradshaw Financial Network, both won major consulting contracts and all our other electronic financial data businesses grew encouragingly.

We also launched several new titles the most notable being Risk Professional and AgraFood Biotech.

Acquisitions

Informa has made four significant acquisitions so far this year. The Australian Daily Commercial News was purchased and merged with Lloyd's List Australian Weekly to create Lloyd's List Daily Commercial News. This is the major source of import/export information for the Australian market and provides niche branding opportunities for our conference operations.

We also acquired Linkraven, a market leader in aviation information and International Media Limited with titles in sugar and confectionery.

In June we completed the acquisition of Washington Policy and Analysis. This US based high level energy consultancy, backed by publications and events, will significantly strengthen our worldwide energy business.

E-commerce

Demand for the electronic delivery of our information continues to grow at a rapid rate. All our electronic publishing businesses saw strong growth in the first half. Electronic publishing profits grew by 29% and now account for over a third of total publishing profit.

Most of our businesses are now capable of marketing and providing products electronically. Different countries' and industries' demands for electronic products are developing at vastly differing paces, but the strength of our niche positions and the proprietary nature of our information means we are well placed to meet their demands.

We continue to integrate our data and text information databases allowing us to offer a growing range of comprehensive and bespoke information packages as required by the market.

We are also generating increasing sales revenues via the Internet. The ability to market our events and publications online is enabling us to reach, cost effectively, parts of the market not accessible by traditional means.

Outlook

We are pleased with these encouraging results for the first half of the year. We have also established a strong base for future growth.

The merger has led to a number of initiatives that have already contributed to the bottom line in 1999 and this process will accelerate into 2000, as we focus on our core markets, developing new products and enhancing our existing portfolio.

We expect the second half of 1999, combining both organic growth and growth from recent acquisitions, to contribute to a satisfactory result for the year.

Peter Rigby
Chairman

David Gilbertson
Chief Executive

For more information contact:

	Peter Rigby
	Chairman
	Phone: 0171 453 2222
	David Gilbertson
	Chief Executive
	Phone: 0171 453 2222
	Jim Wilkinson
	Finance Director
	Phone: 0171 453 2222
	William Clutterbuck/Charlotte Hamilton
	The Maitland Consultancy
	Phone: +44 (0)207 379 5151

Links Out:
Download the full Interim Report as a PDF
Informa Group Website
IBC Telecoms and Media Website

Relevant Market Sectors:
Maritime Trade and Transport
IT and Telecommunications
Biomedical and Pharmaceutical
Law and Tax
Energy and Commodities
Finance and Insurance