Informa Reports Double Digit Percent Revenue Growth in 1H 2024

By Jacob Cohen Donnelly • July 24, 2024

Informa, a UK-based b2b media and events company, announced its 1H 2024 financial results on July 24th and across the board, the numbers were strong.

In a statement, Stephen A. Carter, CEO of Informa, said:

As the world digitises at pace, our brands, our content and our market positions are becoming more valuable. This is moving Informa into a faster growth lane for performance, expansion and returns, as demonstrated by our full year target of up to £1bn of adjusted operating profit and today’s recommended offer for Ascential plc.

  • Revenue: $2.18 billion, up 11.5% from H1 2023
  • Adjusted operating profit: $600 million, up 12.9%
  • Adjusted operating margin: 27.5%, up from 27.2%

What makes the growth compelling is that 2024 is a cyclical down year for the brand. On the earnings call, Gareth Wright, Group Finance Director, said:

Turning to our reported growth, there’s a phasing headwind in the business because 2024 is a biannual down year, 2023 being a biannual up year. Our biannuals are larger, higher-margin, OP [operating profit] events than the average of the rest of the portfolio.

In 2025, these biannual events will happen again and will contribute more in both the margin and revenue case.

Informa has four primary divisions.

  • Informa Markets, which is its transaction-led live & on-demand b2b events business with over 300 brands across 20 markets.
  • Informa Connect, which is its content-led live & on-demand b2b events business with over 400 brands across 6 growth markets.
  • Informa Tech, which includes Industry Dive, Information Week, etc., is part of the TechTarget transaction.
  • Taylor & Francis, with various journals and imprints.

Looking at the financials, we can see that large transaction events generate nearly half of the revenue.

Looking forward, Informa announced that it is expecting the second half of the year to be even stronger than it initially guided. It is now projecting double digit growth in the 2H compared to high-single digit growth it had initially anticipated.

What’s interesting is where the revenue and growth is coming from. According to the financials, it generated 18% H1 underlying revenue growth from its marquee brands, which it classifies as generating $30m+. These include:

  • CPhI (Pharma)
  • Natural Products (Health & Nutrition)
  • Black Hat (Cybersecurity)
  • SuperReturn (Private Equity)
  • China Beauty/Cosmoprof (Beauty)
  • Arab Health (Healthcare)

Additionally, its Power Brands, generating $10m-$30m in revenue, saw 14% revenue growth. These include:

  • Farm Progress (Agriculture)
  • Bio-Europe (BioTech)
  • TISE (Construction)
  • Vitafoods (Nutraceuticals)
  • Medlab (MedTech)
  • The Battery Show (Sustainability)

These brands accounted for over 60% of the company’s revenue. Having the largest players in specific markets remains a key part of Informa’s strategy, which is why it is making a play to acquire Ascential.

On the AI front, Informa reported it expects to generate $75m+ in high margin revenue from licensing its Taylor & Francis content. It has signed two deals, one with Microsoft spending $10m in the first year for access. Informa didn’t disclose the other deal, but it seems sizable given Microsoft’s $10m payment.