JPMorgan downgrades Informa as it waits for business travel to return

JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded its stance on shares of Informa to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’ on Thursday and slashed the price target to 389p from 528p as it waits for business travel to return.

JPM said it had previously seen Informa as an attractive recovery play and long-term structural growth story.

"However, from here we have doubts: while employees are increasingly returning back to their offices, long haul business travel remains subdued and we expect the events industry to suffer longer than initially anticipated," it said.

"While it is consensus that 2020 is a write-off for the space, we more and more anticipate cancellations also for H121 - causing further downgrades to consensus expectations."

The bank cuts its FY20/21/22 earnings per share estimates by 41%/31%/7%, largely driven by a weaker events business.

At 1020 BST, the shares were down 2.6% to 390.60p.