In this media market, flat has to be considered a good result: Lloyds List and professional information publisher Informa made revenues of £636.3 million in the six months to June 30, just one percent higher year on year, helped by gains in the digitally geared, mainly subscription-based publishing division.
“Adjusted operating profits” were £146.6 million — but if you strip out the £85.5 million Informa spent on restructuring and one-off charges, real pre-tax profit for the period was just £23 million. The company says it can beat 2008’s profit margin of 22 percent by one percentage point this year.
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— Publishing revs up…: The company’s publishing division — which distributes 70 percent of its content through online subscriptions — made 1.8 percent higher revenue at £322 million and 4.6 percent percent higher profits of £97 million, both at constant currency rates. Half the group’s revenue comes from publishing and 66 percent of that comes from subscriptions, which prove to be far more recession-proof than consumer publishing — just three percent comes from advertising. The Professional and Commercial Information division, where 85 percent of content is delivered straight to corporate intranets, enjoyed an improved 82 percent renewal rate in the first half.
— …Events down: Events make up the other half of Informa’s revenue — so it’s not good news that earnings there for the quarter were 24 percent down with profits 38 percent down, largely due to the company cutting back its events calendar to match falling demand. European events are hit hard while emerging markets such as the Middle East fared better.
— Cuts complete: and it has already made the £20 million of annual of savings announced earlier this year — mainly through cuts in the events division — bringing down total company costs by six percent. Informa says it’s been “careful not to cut too deeply”.
— Debt: In March Informa’s debt peaked at £1.34 billion, money still owed from the acquisition of Datamonitor. But now debt has fallen below £1 billion to £984.5 million thanks to a £242 million rights issue.

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