Friday, August 08, 2014

UBM’s events revenue down 2.8% in first half

News this week: Last week, London-based, UBM plc reported its interim results for the six months ended 30th June 2014. Revenues in the first half were £361 million (US$618 million), down 7.9% from last year. UBM’s management attributed the drop to strong fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. However, adjusted operating profit grew by 8.7% to £87 million (US$150 million) during the period.

Revenues generated from the company’s events business were £214 million (US$367 million), down 2.8% year-on-year and contributed to 59% of the group’s total. Adjusted operating profit for the events business was down 1.8% to £62 million (US$105 million). Although foreign exchange adversely affected the company’s financial performance, UBM reported forward bookings of its top 20 events were up by 7.5%.

Tim Cobbold, CEO of UBM, commented, “UBM has had a solid first half and remains on track to meet expectations for the full year. Although the reported performance was adversely impacted by currency headwinds, the Group performed well with good underlying revenue growth in both the Events and PR Newswire businesses and with higher operating margins in each of the three businesses.”

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