CMD, Trading Update and Segmental Reporting

4 December 2018

Ascential plc

Capital Markets Event, Trading Update and Segmental Reporting

Capital Markets Event

Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL.L, the "Company"), the specialist, global, information company is hosting a capital markets event in London today. 

The event will be hosted by Duncan Painter, CEO, and Mandy Gradden, CFO, outlining the significant progress we have made in 2018 to deliver our strategy for 2019 and beyond.  Senior management will provide presentations on Edge, Ascential's e-commerce and retail analytics platform, and Flywheel, the leading provider of managed services to consumer product companies trading on Amazon.  No material new information will be provided and the presentations and live webcast will be available on the Ascential website, www.ascential.com, from 2.30pm GMT.

Trading Update

Due to the proximity of the capital markets event to Ascential's year end, the Company makes the following trading update. 

Overall the Company is trading in line with market expectations. 

Our strategy and focus on the digital economy continues to deliver good growth amplified by recent high growth acquisitions.  Following the completion of its two editions in the second half, Money20/20 is expected to grow by 37% for the full year with the US edition delivering revenues of £29.4m (2017: £28.2m) and the launch edition of China delivering revenues of approximately £2.5m.  Total revenue for the Company for the year ended 31 December 2018 is therefore expected to be in the range of £345m to £349m compared to consensus1 of £344m.  On a proforma basis2, we expect to deliver organic constant currency growth of between 9% and 10% for 2018, setting us up well to meet our medium-term target of double digit growth.

We have continued to invest to support future growth.  This includes within our Edge brands, in the launch of Money20/20 China and in positioning Cannes Lions and MediaLink to return to growth in 2019.  Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be in the range of £101m to £103m compared to consensus3 of £103m and Adjusted Diluted EPS for continuing operations is expected to be in the range of 15.1p to 15.6p compared with consensus4 of 15.3p.

1 The Board believes current market forecasts for revenue to be in the range of £337m to £348m with consensus of £344m.

2 The underlying growth of the business assuming all brands currently owned had been owned on 1 January 2017.

3 The Board believes current market forecasts for Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of £101m to £105m with consensus of £103m.

4 The Board believes current market forecasts for Adjusted Diluted EPS to be in the range of 14.8p to 16.0p with consensus of 15.3p.

Segmental Reporting

In July 2018, the Company completed the disposal of its Exhibitions business and announced its intention to report 2018 results on the basis of its new operating segments, namely: Product Design, Marketing, Sales, and Built Environment & Policy.

Ahead of the announcement of its 2018 annual results on 25 February 2019, Ascential today issues summary financial information restated for this new segmental disclosure for the comparative twelve-month period ended 31 December 2017 and six-month periods ended 30 June 2018 and 2017, which has not previously been in the public domain. 

The following summary describes the operations and market-facing brands in each of the Group's four reportable operating segments:

·      Product Design: global trend forecasting and insight (WGSN)

·      Marketing: global creative benchmark, effectiveness measurement and strategic advisory (Cannes Lions, WARC, MediaLink)

·      Sales: global eCommerce data, analytics and managed services, Fintech and retail intelligence (Edge, Flywheel, Money20/20, RWRC)

·      Built Environment & Policy: UK environmental, construction and political intelligence (Groundsure, Glenigan, DeHavilland)

Restated Segmental Disclosures

Year ended 31 December 2017, restated and unaudited

Six months ended 30 June 2018, restated and unaudited

Six months ended 30 June 2017, restated and unaudited

Adjusted profit measures are stated before the amortisation of acquired intangibles, exceptional items and share based payments.

This segmental restatement does not constitute new information about recent or current trading of the Company, and is provided solely for the purposes of providing familiarity with the comparative information for the prior accounting periods ahead of announcement of preliminary results for the current year.

About Ascential plc:

Ascential is a specialist, global, information company that helps the world's most ambitious businesses win in the digital economy. Our information, insights, connections, data and digital tools solve customer problems in three principal disciplines:

·      Product Design via global trend forecasting service WGSN;

·     Marketing via global benchmark for creative excellence and effectiveness Cannes Lions and WARC, and
strategic advisory firm MediaLink; and

·   Sales via eCommerce-driven data, insights and advisory firm Edge, leading managed services provider for Amazon Flywheel Digital, the world's premier payments and FinTech congress Money20/20, global retail industry summit World Retail Congress and Retail Week.

Ascential also powers political, construction and environmental intelligence brands DeHavilland, Glenigan and Groundsure.