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The world’s largest trade show and festival coordinator, Informa, has postponed or canceled almost 130 events worth around £425 million ($553 million) in total revenue as the coronavirus crisis wreaks havoc on the global events circuit.
The FTSE 100–listed FT1K, -0.12% company has been forced to scrap or delay 128 events, including the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif., because of the virus outbreak, named COVID-19. With so many events set to be rescheduled and the epidemic still spreading, Informa said it will not yet be providing financial guidance for 2020.
Governments around the world are cracking down on public gatherings in a bid to contain the virus, which has spread across 115 countries, killing more than 4,000 people worldwide. Italy imposed a nationwide lockdown beginning Tuesday, including travel restrictions and a ban on public gatherings.
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Major conferences, music festivals and sporting events have already felt the impact of the virus, which has infected more than 116,000 people. The Geneva International Motor Show was canceled earlier this month after the Swiss government banned gathering of more than 1,000 people, while Barcelona’s biggest annual event the Mobile World Congress was also scrapped.
Widespread cancelation of events and gatherings had raised concerns over the financial performance of conference operators as the epidemic continues to spread.
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However, shares in Informa INF, +6.38% rose more than 5% on Tuesday after it reported annual results that beat expectations.
Stephen Carter, chief executive of Informa, said the group’s subscriptions-related businesses, which account for around 35% of revenue, continued to grow consistently.
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“However, we are facing a 2020 impact from COVID-19 in our events-related businesses and so we have used our strong customer and supplier relationships to swiftly deploy a material postponement programme, shifting our events calendar to later dates in 2020,” he warned.
“At this point we are not providing market guidance for the Informa Group in 2020,” the company added.
Informa said it had so far agreed or was in the process of agreeing the re-scheduling of 45 large events worth around £350 million in budgeted revenue. A further 70 smaller brands have been rescheduled representing £70 million, and £25 million in events have been held virtually.
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“What will draw analyst’s attention is that there was no guidance given on the COVID-19 impact on the events business Informa Markets,” Liberum analysts said in a note.
Revenues rose 22% to £2.9 billion in 2019, while pre-tax profit increased 13% to £318.7 million, helped by the first full year of contribution from its £4 billion takeover of rival UBM in 2018.
The company’s markets business produces more than 450 international events and trade shows a year across more than 40 countries, ranging from the Monaco Yacht Show to the China Beauty Expo.
