Market report: Deal-hungry Informa shines as hitting acquisition trail pays off

Shares in exhibitions business Informa hit their highest level this year as its acquisition strategy looked to be paying off.

The company has been on the acquisition trail in recent years, increasing its exposure to events and exhibitions to combat slower growth in academic publishing and its business intelligence arm. These deals included the £106 million purchase of US boat show Yachting Promotions.

Today it revealed the exhibitions division had been the star performer in the first half, boosting revenues by 11% and the other parts of the company struggled to keep growing.

The strong performance from exhibitions, which now contribute almost 40% of revenues, helped Informa post strong trading, with overall revenues up 4% to £915 million. Underlying profits were up a touch at £285 million.

Shore Capital’s Roddy Davidson said the company’s dealmaking in exhibitions had improved “the performance and prospects of the group’s underlying businesses and enhanced its on-going organic growth potential”.

The company also announced the sale of its stake in Euroforum to Handelsblatt in a deal valuing the German economics event at €15 million.

Informa surged to the top of the FTSE 100 today, up 42.36p, or 6.3%, to 718p. Equities launched a recovery today after two days of losses, which sent the FTSE 100 up 51.96 points, or 0.7%, to 7429.69.

The charge higher was led by miners as the price of copper continued to climb. Anglo American wasn’t far behind Informa as it put on 58.78p, or 5.3%, to 1163.5p, and BHP Billiton rose 38.78p, or 3%, to 1326p.

Anglo’s rise came as broker RBC predicted it will reinstate the dividend when it unveils half-year results on Thursday.

PZ Cussons edged up 1.13p to 363.2p after unveiling solid annual results despite challenging conditions in Nigeria, its largest market, following a 40% devaluation of the naira.

The Imperial Leather soap and St Tropez tanning lotion maker, said sales in the year to May were down 1.5% at £809 million, but adjusted profits were better than last year at £103.5 million.

The former owners of Biffa, Avenue Europe, Bain Capital Credit, and Barings, dumped £54 million worth of shares in the bin lorry operator. The sale at 220p each dragged the shares down 10.5p to 220.25p.

On AIM, big data specialist WANdisco surged 42.2p to 669.7p — its highest in more than three years. As well as reducing the cash burn to just £600,000 in the first half of the year, the company said bookings jumped 73% to $10.2 million (£7.8 million).