Informa delays, cancels 128 events due to coronavirus; FY profits up

Global exhibitions group Informa on Tuesday said it had cancelled or delayed 128 events with an estimated revenue of £425m due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The company reported a 13% rise in pre-tax profit to £318.7m as revenue increased 22% to £2.9bn with the first full year of contribution from UBM after its takeover.

"As the impact of COVID-19 became clear, through our postponement programme we began re-scheduling brands, with around 45 large events now agreed or in the process of agreeing a move to later in 2020," the company said.

A further 70 smaller events have been postponed and 13 cancelled, the company added.

“For those brands we have rescheduled, localised or virtualised in 2020, we would expect to incur some incremental investment in venue capacity, customer marketing and other duplicative costs...subject to in-market support budgets and insurance outcomes.”

Informa said the large events had budgeted revenue of £350m, the 70 postponed £50m and 13 cancelled, £25m.

"In 2020, all three events businesses will see an impact from COVID-19," the company said.