Events planner Informa hikes share buyback scheme to £500m

Informa is increasing its share buyback programme by almost half following a strong performance over the first four months of 2024.

The exhibitions organiser said it would repurchase £500million of its shares this year, 47 per cent more than previously planned, having already bought about £180million so far this year.

It noted that all divisions were performing ‘ahead or in line’ with full-year targets, supported by ‘strong’ momentum across all major regions, such as Asia and North America.

In the Middle East, the group achieved success with Arab Health and LEAP, an annual technology event in Saudi Arabia, while across the United States, the MRO Americas aviation conference and manufacturing-themed IME West were popular.

Informa’s academic markets segment, Taylor & Francis, benefited from subscription renewals and higher volumes of open research submissions and publishing.

The FTSE 100 firm announced it had struck a three-year deal with Microsoft worth an initial $10million fee plus other recurring payments.

Under the agreement, Informa will allow access to its data to help Microsoft improve its artificial intelligence systems and work with the technology giant to advance automated citation referencing.

Like similar contracts, the company said the arrangement protects its intellectual property rights, including caps on verbatim text extracts.

Thanks to the deal and robust operating performance, the business said its turnover, free cash flow and adjusted operating profits were at ‘the upper end of market guidance.’

For the full year, Informa expects revenues of up to £3.5billion in the financial year, compared to £3.2billion in 2023, and adjusted operating profits of £950million to £970million.

Informa also revealed that Penny Ladkin-Brand would become the next chief executive of Taylor & Francis.

Ladkin-Brand is currently the head of finance and strategy at Future, the magazine publisher behind Country Life and FourFourTwo, and chair of media consultancy Next 15 Group.

Alongside this, Jill Dougan has been appointed Informa’s chief marketing officer, having previously worked for over five years in senior roles at British Gas.

Dougan said Informa ‘has a unique set of specialist brands and first-party data, and significant embedded value across its portfolio of intellectual property, creating numerous growth opportunities in today’s increasingly data-driven, digitally enabled world.’

Informa shares were 2.3 per cent higher at 850.8p on early Wednesday afternoon, making them one of the FTSE 100 Index’s top risers.