UK's Informa lowers earnings ambition on currency hit from Ascential deal
Corrects headline, paragraphs 1 & 3 to drop reference to Ascential deal. This story was previously corrected to read FTSE 100, not FTSE 250 in paragraph 2
Shares of midcap firm fall more than 2% in morning trade
Company sees 2024 operating profit at over 975 mln pounds
By Aby Jose Koilparambil
Nov 19 (Reuters) -Informa INF.L, the UK events and academic publishing group, rowed back on Tuesday from its ambition of an annual profit of up to 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion), blaming negative currency impact.
Shares in the FTSE 100 .FTSE firm, which have gained about 6% since early October, fell more than 2% in early trade.
Richard Menzies-Gow, director of investor relations at Informa, told Reuters that movements in currency would make it harder to get to the original top end of guidance.
Informa said it now expected 2024 adjusted operating profit of over 975 million pounds, compared with the previous forecast of more than 970 million pounds with a potential to reach up to 1 billion pounds.
"There may well be a lull in positive catalysts for a time now, and with significant U.S./ China exposure, fears over future tariffs or trade disruption in 2025 could weigh on sentiment," Investec analysts said in a note.
However, London-based Informa also nudged up its annual cash flow forecast to more than 750 million pounds, including the Ascential deal, from more than 740 million before.
Informa in July agreed to buy Ascential, which produces advertising festival Cannes Lions, for 1.2 billion pounds.
The world's largest exhibition group posted a 10.7% rise in revenue for the first 10 months of this year, driven by its live events businesses.
The events sector has seen a resurgence over the past two years as businesses have resumed in-person conferences and exhibitions, steadily rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic-induced downturn.
($1 = 0.7919 pounds)
Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Mark Potter
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