Informa H1 Profit Down, Revenues Rise; Says Confident To Meet FY View

(RTTNews) - Informa plc (INFMF.PK, INF.L), an Exhibitions, Events, Business Intelligence and Academic Publishing Group, reported Wednesday that its first-half profit before tax declined to 120.3 million pounds from last year's 148.6 million pounds. Earnings per share fell to 10.4 pence from 14.1 pence a year ago.

The lower profit was largely due to one-off acquisition costs related to its recently completed acquisition of UBM.

Adjusted profit before tax was 264.7 million pounds, compared to 256.2 million pounds a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share were 24.6 pence, compared to 24 pence last year.

Revenue for the first half grew 4.6 percent to 957.1 million pounds from 915.3 million pounds a year ago. Underlying revenue increased 4.3 percent.

Further, the company announced an interim dividend of 7.05 pence, a 6% increase from last year.

Looking ahead, the company said it is confident in the outlook for the second half performance, and that it can meet ambition for more than 3.5% underlying revenue growth in 2018.

Stephen Carter, Group Chief Executive, said, "Informa continues to deliver good trading performances, reflecting our combination of international scale, increased depth and breadth in attractive industry verticals and the recent addition of UBM. This puts us firmly on track for another year of growth in revenue, adjusted operating profit, adjusted earnings, cashflow and dividends."