11th Feb 2016 07:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - Events and business publishing company Informa PLC Thursday said it expects to see further earnings and cash flow growth in 2016 as it undertakes the third and final year of its 'Growth Acceleration Plan', and reported a swing to a profit for 2015.
The company reported a pretax profit of GBP219.7 million for 2015, swung from a pretax loss of GBP31.2 million in 2014, as a result of a rise in revenue to GBP1.21 billion from GBP1.14 billion and lower exceptional costs.
In the previous year, the company also posted heavy impairment charges in relation to its consumer information business, which it sold in 2015, and its pharma and healthcare business.
On an adjusted basis, stripping out exceptional costs, pretax profit rose to GBP339.7 million from GBP309.6 million.
Informa proposed a final dividend of 13.55 pence, taking its total dividend for the year to 20.1 pence, up from 19.3 pence a year before.
The company said it had continued to implement its investment and restructuring plan, dubbed the 'Growth Acceleration Plan', throughout 2015. It invested around GBP25 million during the year, and made a few disposals, including the sale of the consumer information business also for GBP25 million.
It expects to invest around GBP50 million as part of the plan during 2016.
"Our ambitions for 2016, Year Three of the Growth Acceleration Plan, are to remain highly disciplined in the continued delivery of that programme, while continuing to expand the scale and quality of our businesses in North America and in the wider Exhibitions market. We anticipate a further period of earnings and cash flow growth in 2016, including a full year of positive organic revenue growth in Business Intelligence," said Chief Executive Stephen Carter in a statement.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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