Informa plc – Full year results for the Year Ended 31 December 2012

informa2Informa plc have announced full year results for the Year Ended 31 December 2012.

Key highlights below

Full report here

Highlights

  • Academic publishing unit saw a 2.4 per cent increase in revenues
  • Sales dropped 4.4 per cent at the business information unit
  • Sales dropped 3% at the events and training unit
  • Total revenues £1232.5 million, a drop of 3.4%
  • Emerging market growth – now 18% of Group revenue (2011: 14%)
  • Core revenue stream – 67% of publishing revenues from subscriptions
  • Digital revenue strew – 74% of publishing revenues fully digitised
  • Diluted EPS 15p, a drop of 20%
  • Adjusted diluted EPS 40.7p, up 7.7%
  • Full year dividend 18.5p, up 10.1%
  • Profit before tax £67 million, a drop of 24.4%
  • Adjusted operating profit of £349.7 million, up 4.0%
  • Adjusted operating margin of 28.4%
  • Adjusted profit before tax of £317.4 million, up 7.3%
  • Statutory profit after tax of £90.7 million
  • Operating cash flow £329 million, up 5.7%
  • Balance sheet  – net debt/EBITDA ratio of 2.1 times

Peter Rigby, Chief Executive, said:

“Informa has performed strongly once again in 2012, delivering earnings ahead of market expectations and strong cashflow, despite what have remained very challenging market conditions. This is testament to the resilience of our businesses, underpinned by strong brands, leading market positions, digital excellence and a growing presence in emerging markets. Our performance has enabled us to keep investing in our business, while maintaining our progressive dividend policy, with 10.1% growth in the total payout in 2012, underlining our commitment to delivering attractive returns to our shareholders.

Commenting on acquisitions and disposals, Peter Rigby said:

We were very proactive in managing our portfolio in 2012. This was evident through the acquisitions of Zephyr, which bolstered our digital subscription base, and MMPI, which expanded our portfolio of large exhibitions, as well as the disposals of Robbins Gioia and some small European local language Conference businesses. Internally, our focus on operating excellence also led us to proactively exit a number of lower quality publishing products and events, cutting out over £25m of revenue. This has impacted top-line growth trends but leaves the group in a stronger position going forward, with a higher underlying quality of earnings.

UK, London

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SIIA acquires the Specialist Media Show

SIIAThe Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) the trade association for the software and digital content industries, based in Washington DC, has bought the Specialist Media Show, a UK-based organiser of live and online events and resources for consumer and B2B publishers.

The Specialist Media Show has showcased digital media innovation at events for niche publishers since 2010. The next event, the specialistmediashowSpecialist Media Conference, will take place 24 April 2013 at the British Library. SIIA’s acquisition will take effect after the event.

“Digital media innovation is at the heart of publishing and content strategy, and it’s happening on a global scale,” said SIIA President Ken Wasch. “Companies from New York to London are seeing many of the same opportunities and challenges with their digital strategies. The Specialist Media Show will help us strengthen the collective power of our communities to serve the information industry.”

USA, Washington DC & UK, Lincolnshire

Independent News and Media to sell INM South Africa for R2billion

inm Independent News and Media has announced that it has agreed detailed heads of terms with Sekunjalo Independent Media Consortium for the sale of INM South Africa for R2billion (c. €170 million)

The Sekunjalo consortium of investors is led by Iqbal Survé, a SA philanthropist and former doctor to ex-president Nelson Mandela. Commenting on the agreement, Survé said “I am delighted that I have the opportunity to bring these newspapers, this national asset, back to South Africa. I am bringing Independent back home.”

The agreement will require the approval of INM shareholders and the competition commission in South Africa

Ireland, Dublin & South Africa, Cape Town

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Merger update: US Department of Justice clears Penguin Random House combination

Previous reporting

random-house-penguinPearson and Bertelsmann have been notified by the US Department of Justice that it has closed its investigation into the proposed merger of Penguin and Random House, without conditions.

The two companies announced their agreement to combine Penguin and Random House in October 2012. The proposed merger is currently under review by the European Commission, the Canadian Competition Bureau and various other antitrust authorities around the world. Pearson and Bertelsmann continue to expect the transaction to close in the second half of 2013, after all necessary approvals have been received.

Following completion, Bertelsmann will own 53% and Pearson 47% of Penguin Random House. It will encompass all of Random House and Penguin Group’s publishing units in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, as well as Penguin’s operations in China and Random House’s publishers in Spain and Latin America.

UK, London & Germany, Gütersloh & USA, New York, NY

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Wargaming to acquire Gas Powered Games

wargaming

Wargaming, the free-to-play MMO developer and publisher, is to acquire Seattle-based developer Gas Powered Games, the maker of memorable and critically acclaimed franchises such as Dungeon Siege, Supreme Commander and Demigod.

gaspowered

“Gas Powered Games’ heritage and development pedigree shows us just how valuable an addition Chris (Chris Taylor , CEO) and his company will make to the Wargaming family,” said Victor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming. “Gas Powered Games has a long track record of providing incredibly engaging AAA gaming experiences and we can’t wait to start working with them.”

USA, Emeryville, CA & Seattle, WA

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lynda.com acquires Austrian online learning company video2brain

lyndalynda.com, an online learning company, has acquired video2brain, GmbH, a European-based online video training company that specialises in German-, French-, Spanish- and English-language courses.

“This acquisition is an investment in our future as we see a huge growth opportunity in new and emerging markets that demand multi-lingual educational content,” said Eric Robison, lynda.com president and CEO.

USA, Carpinteria, CA & Austria, Graz

Comcast Corporation to acquire General Electric’s 49% stake in the NBCUniversal

comcastComcast Corporation is to acquire the 49 percent of NBCUniversal that it doesn’t already own from joint venture owner General Electric for approximately $16.7 billion.  Also, NBCUniversal will purchase from GE the properties used by NBCUniversal at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and CNBC’s headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, NJ for approximately $1.4 billion. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of this year.

“This is an exciting day for Comcast as we have agreed to accelerate the purchase of NBCUniversal. The management team at GE has nbcbeen a wonderful partner during the past two years and their support has been very valuable. Our decision to acquire GE’s ownership is driven by our sense of optimism for the future prospects of NBCUniversal and our desire to capture future value that we hope to create for our shareholders,” said Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation. “We believe the terms of the transaction are attractive and have planned for this event by taking a number of financial steps to prepare our balance sheet. We believe we are in a strong and unique position to continue to grow and build value in our combined company.”

The transactions will be funded with $11.4 billion of cash on hand, $4.0 billion of subsidiary senior unsecured notes to be issued to GE, $2.0 billion of borrowings under Comcast and/or subsidiary bank credit facilities and $725 million of subsidiary preferred stock to be issued to GE.

Morgan Stanley was financial advisor to Comcast and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP was the Company’s legal advisor.

USA, Philadelphia, PA & Fairfield, CT

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AdVantage Networks acquires Travora Media

travora1Advertising technology company AdVantage Networks has acquired Travora Media, a travel and lifestyle media company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Headquartered in New York City. Travora is the second largest travel information network with hundreds of travel publishers delivering desktop and mobile solutions that attract 30 million unique visitors while generating 1.3 billion monthly mobile page views. Travora offers exclusive publisher solutions across all stages of the travel lifecycle and represents leading travel brands, including Fodor’s, Viator, and Vayama. Travora delivers turnkey revenue solutions for travel publishers and total access to a travel and lifestyle audience across local, social, and mobile platforms for brands. Travora was previously a portfolio company of StarVest Partners, Rho Capital Partners, and Village Ventures.

Note AdVantage Networks is a wholly owned subsidiary of JMG Exploration. JMG Exploration is soon to be renamed MediaShift.

USA, Glendale, CA & New York, NY

Yahoo! acquires mobile app creator Alike

YahooYahoo! has acquired Alike, a mobile app that helps people find nearby restaurants and places they’ll like. Alike makes money through affiliate partnerships with third-party providers that aggregate deals for local venues.

Here is how Alike announced the acquisition.

At Alike, we’ve spent the last couple of years working hard to build amazing mobile experiences to delight our customers, which is alike_logo_coral-4fdb275b8fa65a199fecac60239886c7why we’re thrilled to announce some big news: we’re joining Yahoo! Mobile.

We’ve always been passionate about the growing power of intelligent mobile experiences. We believe that distilled information, deeply personalized and made accessible anytime and anywhere, is what makes mobile experiences a part of our customers’ daily lives.

In Yahoo! we’ve found a team as excited about this vision as we are, and who are serious about making it real. We’re super excited to join Yahoo!’s mobile team, where we can march toward that vision faster than ever.

As of today, we will no longer support the Alike Nearby iPhone and Web apps. Thank you to all our customers, partners, investors, and advisors who’ve supported us from day one! We’ve taken a big step on our journey, and we could not have done it without your support.

Looking forward to starting our new chapter at Yahoo!

USA, Sunnydale, CA

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Cox Media Group sells radio stations in six markets

coxmediaCox Media Group (CMG) is to sell radio stations in six markets as part of its broadcast portfolio realignment.

CMG is to sell its Southern Connecticut radio stations – WPLR-FM, WEZN-FM, WFOX-FM, and contract rights for WYBC-FM – to Westport, CT. based Connoisseur Media. CMG is to sell its radio stations in five other markets to SummitMedia, including:

Birmingham (WAGG-AM, WBHJ-FM, WBHK-FM, WENN-AM, WZZK-FM, WZNN-FM, WBPT-FM, and CMG’s contract rights for WALJ-FM)
Greenville, S.C. (WJMZ-FM, WHZT-FM)
Hawaii (KRTR-AM/FM, KPHW-FM, KCCN-FM, KINE-FM, KKNE-AM)
Louisville (WRKA-FM, WVEZ-FM, WSFR-FM, WQNU-FM)
Richmond (WHTI-FM, WKHK-FM, WKLR-FM, WURV-FM)

“These are all important brands powered by talented media professionals who tirelessly serve their audiences, advertisers and communities,” said CMG President Doug Franklin . “We wish all of the employees well and know they will continue to work hard to produce quality entertainment, news and information for their customers and new owners.”

The sales are expected to close during the second quarter following receipt of regulatory approvals.

USA, Atlanta, GA