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(Sharecast News) - Publishing company Informa said on Thursday that year-to-date trading has been "robust" across both its academic and B2B businesses, boosting underlying revenues by more than 40% year-on-year.
Informa said its performance so far in 2022, combined with strong forward visibility on subscriptions revenues in its Taylor & Francis unit, as well as exhibitor and delegate bookings in live and on-demand events and favourable currency trends, had put the group on track to meet the upper-end of its full-year guidance range of £2.15bn-£2.250bn and adjusted operating profits of £470.0m-£490.0m.
The FTSE 100-listed firm highlighted that markets were now open or opening in all of its geographies around the world and with restrictions progressively being lifted in mainland China, the company believes it will resume live B2B events in the region from the third quarter.
Informa also noted that its deliberate shift to implement enhanced cash management processes and "challenging cash metrics" was continuing to deliver benefits, with further strong cash conversion and free cash flow generation over the first five months of the year.
Strong free cash flow and the recent sale of its Pharma Intelligence unit effectively reduced Informa's net debt to zero, "significantly strengthening" its balance sheet and providing additional funds for growth and reinvestment.
Informa also announced it would further expand its share buyback programme from £300.0m to £725.0m, representing approximately 50% of post-tax cash proceeds received to date from the delivery of its GAP II Portfolio Focus. The expanded programme will take the group through to year-end 2022, with 50.3m shares purchased year-to-date, equating to roughly £290.0m of capital returned to shareholders.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
