Informa BI Division Headed Back to Growth

London-based BI, events and academic publishing group Informa has issued a trading update for the nine months ending 30th September, including the news that its Business Intelligence division has put an end to its 'long trend of revenue declines'.

Less than two months ago the group agreed to acquire New York-based professional information services and exhibitions group Penton for around £1.2bn - a deal completed last week. Informa CEO Stephen A. Carter (pictured) says the buy increases Informa's US scale and reach, further strengthening our capabilities in Global Exhibitions and Business Intelligence in particular, and adds: 'Together with our Growth Acceleration Plan, it increases the Balance and Breadth across the portfolio, underpinning the potential for future growth'.

The Plan runs from 2014-2017 and is seeing around £50m being invested in more than 30 initiatives across the Group during 2016. Informa says year-end performance 'remains on track on revenue, operating profit, earnings, cash flow and dividend growth'.

The integration of Penton begins this month, and will be led by Business Intelligence division CEO Patrick Martell, who is now also CEO and Integration Officer for Penton.

The division is currently focused on subscriptions and customer management, and the update reports 'ongoing positive trends in Renewal Rates and Annualised Contract Values'. Together with a continuing effort to streamline operations, this has turned around the trend of revenue declines, giving flat organic growth in the nine months. Looking forward, Informa says 'the business is on track for positive growth across the year with an upward trajectory into 2017' - before the end of which more than 35 individual product releases are scheduled.

The Group has more than 7,500 employees spread across five continents, with a home page at www.informa.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.