Ascential feeling 'well placed' after transformational year
Business information group Ascential said it was close to where it wants to be, strategically, after making three new acquisitions last year and selling off its exhibitions arm.
Now focused on what chief executive Duncan Painter calls, "support[ing] global brands as they navigate fast-paced change in the digital commerce economy", the FTSE 250 group reported 19% growth in revenue to £348.5m for calendar 2018, of which 6.3% was organic or 9.6% on a proforma basis.
Disposal of the exhibitions business to ITE for £300m last July helped cut debt and provided cash for acquisitions and internal investment.
It has also preceded the adoption of a new operating model with the group divided into customer segments around product design, where the WGSN unit provides trend forecasting and insight; marketing, which is made up of the Cannes Lions awards, the WARC digital platform and MediaLink digital consultancy; together with sales, which provides data and intelligence on retail, ecommerce and fintech, plus analytics and managed services, mostly under the Edge brand.
WARC was acquired in June, before BrandView was added to the Edge proposition in September and Flywheel Digital, another sales platform, in November.
Adjusted operating profit of £101.8m for the year was up 7.5%, with 3.8% organic growth and 12.5% on a proforma basis. Margin shrank to 29.2% from 32.3% amid investment in the acquisitions, partly offset by a net positive impact from operational leverage.
Adjusted diluted earnings per share on continuing operations of 15.3p was up 12.5% and reported diluted EPS on total operations of 51.4p compared to 4.4p the year before.
Said Painter: "2018 was an important year for Ascential. We delivered another year of strong growth, reflecting the value that customers place on our critical information."
He said the group was now at an advanced stage of the multi-year restructuring, with the focus having shifted to "integrating and investing in our unique information services to continue to give our global customer base access to the critical information they need".
Action has been taken to return the marketing segment to growth in 2019, following the "re-set" of Cannes Lions last year and the realignment of MediaLink to focus on large brand reviews and projects.
"We remain well placed to enhance our market leadership in 2019 and to pursue our medium-term target of double-digit growth."