Media firm Informa (INF) is enjoying a strong start to 2019, judging by today's trading update. Investors certainly seem more happy to back the business, lifting the shares more than 2% higher in early trading to 786.4p, making it one of the day's biggest gainers among UK blue-chip FTSE 100 companies.
The events and publishing group has reported on the first four months of 2019, the company saying it expects to hit revenue targets for the respective parts of its business, which take in areas like events, digital content, academic jouurnals, and market intelligence.
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This underpins a pledge to deliver a further year of growth in revenue, adjusted profit, earnings, cash flow and dividends.
Specifically, the Informa Markets division, its largest division, is in line with a 4.5% underlying revenue growth target. Significantly trading in North America and China is reported to be particularly robust.
The results offer some further vindication of Informa’s £4bn takeover of its rival UBM which completed in June 2018.
Shore Capital analyst Roddy Davidson says: ‘We are encouraged by the momentum and outlook comments summarised in this morning’s update and are positive on the quality and scale of Informa’s portfolio of global exhibitions and the organic growth opportunities, cash generation/debt reduction and visibility that this exposure offers.’
Based on Davidson’s forecasts, Informa trades on a 2019 price-to-earnings ratio of 15.2 times.