EUROMONEY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR PLC ("Euromoney")
Quarter-one trading update
28 January 2021
Euromoney, the international B2B information services provider of essential information to global and specialist markets today issues a trading update for the first quarter ended 31 December 2020. The headlines are:
| 1) | Continued robust subscriptions growth in Pricing and Data & Market Intelligence ("DMI") + 6% overall
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| 2) | Previously announced restructuring completed, and cost base reduced
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| 3) | Robust balance sheet, supporting organic investment, bolt-on acquisitions and dividends
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| 4) | Investment Research turnaround on track
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| 5) | Physical events continue to be affected by covid-19, although mitigated partly by the performance of our virtual events |
Q1 Trading Update
Trading in the first quarter has been very encouraging, although, given we do not have visibility on when physical events will return, our outlook is unchanged and in line with the Board's expectations.
Revenue for the three months ended 31 December 2020 was £78.7m (2019: £99.2m) reflecting the covid-19 impact on physical events and a continuation of the trends seen in the previous quarter.
Pricing and DMI subscription revenue grew 14% boosted by acquisitions and strong underlying growth of 6%. The underlying performance benefited from excellent growth in People Intelligence and NextGen, following the investment in those pillars.
Asset Management revenues declined 12%. There are two different trends in this segment. Good momentum continues within Investment Research where the Book of Business year-on-year rate of decline improved again during the quarter. We remain on track to meet our announced target to return the Investment Research non-vote subscription Book of Business to growth. There is a drag from Institutional Investor, an events-based subscription business, where revenues declined 19% without physical events.
Group events revenue of £8.6m was 30% of the same period last year. The impact from not holding physical events was mitigated by running successful virtual events, both one-off and those previously held as physical events. Highlights included ABS East, Capacity events for both Europe and Asia and TowerXchange Asia, which all had strong customer and sponsorship participation. As reported in November, virtual events operate at a higher gross margin than physical events. The recent developments and rollout of covid-19 vaccines will support the return of face-to-face events although exactly when this will be remains uncertain.
As previously announced, we have completed the restructure which mainly affected our events business and are on track to deliver the £15m of cost savings during this financial year.
Euromoney's financial position and underlying cash generation remain strong, with net cash at the end of December 2020 of £20.3m. During the quarter, we completed the acquisition of WealthEngine for £11.1m. The final dividend for the financial year 2020 totalling £12.3m, will be paid in February 2021.
The interim results for the six months ending 31 March 2021 will be announced on 20 May 2021.
For further information, please contact:
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC
Wendy Pallot, Chief Financial Officer: +44 20 7779 8866; wendy.pallot@euromoneyplc.com
Jo Britten, Investor Relations: +44 (0)775 392 8523; jo.britten@euromoneyplc.com
FTI Consulting
Charles Palmer / Jamie Ricketts / Jamille Smith: +44 20 3727 1000; euromoney@fticonsulting.com
NOTE TO EDITORS
| 1. | Euromoney is a global information business providing essential B2B information to global and specialist markets. Euromoney provides discovery, market intelligence and events across our segments. Euromoney is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 250 share index. (www.euromoneyplc.com) |
| 2. | Underlying numbers restate prior period revenues using current period exchange rates, include pro-forma comparatives for acquisitions and new business launches, exclude disposals, business closures and significant event and publication timing differences. |
Ends
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