Informa Group (Taylor & Francis, Datamonitor) Announces "Strong" 2011 Results

From the Complete Earnings Announcement w/ Financials (33 pages; PDF)

• Revenue increased – £1.28bn (2010: £1.23bn); organic revenue growth of 3.9% (excluding IPEX)
• Profit increased – adjusted operating profit up 7.3% to £336.2m (2010: £313.2m); organic growth of 7.9% (excluding IPEX)
• Margin increased – adjusted operating margin of 26.4% (2010: 25.5%)
• Adjusted profit before tax of £295.9m up 7% (2010: £276.4m)

The predominant revenue stream across our publishing divisions is subscription income which provides resilience and visibility to this part of our business. We have grown the proportion of subscription revenues to 36% of Group revenues and 67% of publishing revenues. Contribution to this subscription revenue stream comes from the AI journals business and the numerous proprietary data, opinion and news services within the PCI division.
The strength of the academic journals is supported by very high renewal rates and increased usage statistics. The continued introduction of society journals (60 for 2011) stimulates awareness for our portfolio of products within the specific academic niche.
Proprietary, high value, niche information remains core to the PCI strategy as, increasingly, the sale of single subscriptions has been replaced by enterprise wide site licences embedding our content into the heart of our customers’ business. Subscriptions now account for 78% of this divisions revenues (2010: 74%) which along with consistently high renewal rates and improved operating margins demonstrate the high quality of earnings in this division.
We have embraced digital developments across all of our product areas, most notably within the publishing divisions, where the advent of digital delivery and online marketing has been transformational over recent years. In 2011, 74% of all publishing revenues were derived from digital activities.
2011 saw the launch of Taylor & Francis Online, the new delivery platform for the digital content of over 1,600 academic journals. This platform provides faster access, better search capability, greater reliability and intuitive use for the librarian, academic, researcher or student. In 2012 this platform will be utilised for our book catalogue.
E-book sales have grown by 11%, now representing 12% of academic book sales. E-book delivery, as well as the increasing use of print on demand services and online marketing of back catalogues, has been a significant driver in improving the quality of the books business.
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AI continues to grow organically. In addition to the 13 new titles and 60 society journals added in 2011, the division was successful in signing a further 46 society journals for publication in 2012 and beyond. In addition, over 3,500 new books were published in the year. In 2012, T&F Online will facilitate the sale of the ever increasing number of e-books available, now in excess of 38,000. Print on Demand plays an important role in the efficiency of the books operation and the business has engaged in many facets of digital evolution.
Journal usage was up 18% in 2011 demonstrating the quality of the content and its importance to users. Journal renewal for 2012 continues to build on this theme and is well progressed with all indicators pointing to 2012 revenues in line with expectations.

Comments of Peter Rigby, Chief Executive:

Informa has delivered another set of strong results, in line with the expectations we set at the beginning of 2011 despite the challenging macro economic backdrop. These results further underline the Group’s resilient and high quality earnings streams.
Our academic division has again displayed resilience and growth, outperforming expectations. It is encouraging to see both the books and the journals continuing to make significant contributions with good organic growth and more progress in emerging markets.  The long standing nature and depth of our client relationships, combined with the quality of our product portfolio are central to the consistent performance of this business.

Filed under: Data Files, News, Patrons and Users, Publishing