17th May 2018 09:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC on Thursday said that exceptional gains from disposals of businesses has resulted in a sharply higher profit for the first half, and the company remains confident in meeting the board's expectations for the full year.
The financial information publisher and events organiser posted pretax profit of GBP121.1 million for the six months to March 31, jumping from GBP9.3 million in pretax profit in the year ago period.
Adjusted pretax profit, excluding proceeds from disposals, grew 6% to GBP52.0 million from GBP49.1 million. Gains in the first half totalled GBP86.8 million reflecting profits from the disposals of Adhesion, World Bulk Wine Exhibition, Institutional Investor Journals and the associate investment in Dealogic.
Revenue increased 3% to GBP209.6 million from GBP203.2 million, on the back of strong performance of the events business.
Euromoney said its businesses focused on pricing, data and market intelligence performed strongly and benefited from strategic business actions. The commodity events and banking & finance segments also performed well, reflecting the company's focus on high margin events. It said the events business should perform well in the second-half of the year, though against tough comparatives.
The asset management business continued to be a drag on the company's performance due to reduction in clients' research spend which has been accelerated by new European financial market regulations. Euromoney said the outlook for the asset management business remained tough, particularly for investment research unit BCA.
Still, Euromoney said it is confident to meet board expectations for the full year to end September.
Euromoney has lifted its interim payout by 16% to 10.2 pence per share from 8.8 pence. Shares were trading 1.2% lower at 1,272.00 pence on Thursday morning.
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